Movie Review: "Judy and Punch" Is Nuts (and Much Needed)

Roll up, roll up. We hope you’re ready to laugh nervously.

Here’s a brazen and baroque black comedy that sets the tone with a darkly humorous public stoning and doesn’t let up from there.

Australian actor Mirrah Foulkes writes and directs Judy & Punch, inspired by the Punch & Judy puppets of the 16th century that turned domestic violence and other grisly acts into fodder for kids.

It’s no typographical accident that their names have been switched for the film adaptation. Mia Wasikowska plays Judy opposite Damon Herriman’s Punch; they're a married couple who re-enact a heightened (or so we assume) version of their homelife with marionettes for cheering crowds.

But while the audiences in their 17th century village of Seaside are there for Punch—the man and the puppet—this is Judy’s story, as she realises her talented hubby has her hanging by a string too. (To spoil where the tale of Judy and Punch goes would be a criminal act itself, punishable by the hangman’s rope, so I’ll dance around the details.)

In this, Foulkes turns the backwards and misogynistic Punch & Judy commedia dell’arte into a parable extolling the necessity of believing women, and pricking the idea that "great" men should get a pass for their crimes. But she's walking a tricky tonal tightrope—emphasised by the bouncy organ grinder’s score of François Tétaz—given it's a comedy about violence towards women, not to mention the insidious act of gaslighting. (The superstitious Seasiders are constantly stoning, hanging or exiling suspected witches, only to find themselves without doctors to treat their ailments or seamstresses to mend their clothes.) That makes it a movie of the moment, set hundreds of years in the past. Not a great sign of our progress, I suppose.

It yields a sterling performance from Wasikowska, who leavens her character’s pain and turmoil to match the film’s mood, and delivers a rousing third act retribution. Judy & Punch also sees Herriman at his most pathetic and detestable, though I mean that as a sincere compliment, seeing as it comes at the tail-end of a year in which he played an evil priest in Lambs of God, a sadistic solider in The Nightingale, and Charles Manson, twice, in both Mindhunter and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Yet I assure you: Judy and Punch is funny stuff. It steals a speech from Russell Crowe’s character in Gladiator; it appears to take inspiration from Monty Python; and its most shocking, disturbing scene is, somehow, a perfectly timed moment of physical comedy. Foulkes balances both extremes within a stunningly decorated setting that evokes a theatrical, handcrafted quality. It kinda looks like an adults only Paddington with less marmalade and more blood. She clearly wants the laughs to catch in our throat, so as not to diminish the story she’s telling. Still, a few snuck out regardless.

4/5

Judy & Punch is now in cinemas. Rated MA15+ for strong violence.