Poison Ivy

Directed by Katt Shea Ruben, Poison Ivy details the trouble that ensues after a high-school outcast (Sara Gilbert’s Sylvie Cooper) befriends a rebellious fellow student (Drew Barrymore’s Ivy). Filmmaker Ruben, armed with a script written alongside Andy Ruben, delivers an often astonishingly sluggish piece of work that proves unable to capture the viewer’s interest right from the get-go, as the movie kicks off with a deliberately-paced opening stretch that’s focused mostly on Sylvie’s dysfunctional home life – with the arms-length atmosphere perpetuated by a general absence of compelling, attention-grabbing elements. And while it’s admittedly kind of impressive how entirely unsalacious the whole thing is, particularly given the decidedly lurid bent of the movie’s premise, Poison Ivy progresses into a momentum-free midsection that does little to lift the picture out of its stagnant, less-than-engrossing doldrums – which is a shame, ultimately, given that Ruben has admittedly elicited strong performances from a first-class cast. By the time the almost incongruously trashy third act rolls around, Poison Ivy has cemented its place as a seriously misguided endeavor that feels like it could (and should) have been so much better.

*1/2 out of ****