‘Mistress Dispeller,’ Elizabeth Lo’s Venice Documentary, Puts Love Triangle in the Hands of a Paid Disruptor: ‘Seductive Approach Was Compelling to Financiers’
variety.comPatrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief A love triangle involving a middle-aged couple and a younger woman is exposed and scrutinized from every angle when a professional breakup agent is employed in Elizabeth Lo’s “Mistress Dispeller.” The Chinese-U.S.
documentary, which plays in Venice’s Horizons section, is extraordinary for both the candor of the subjects and the film’s exceptional fly-on-the-wall setup.
The film’s static opening shot, depicting a woman quietly weeping under the dryer as she gets a new hairdo, sets the tone. The second scene, a deflating dinner where the woman tries to probe her husband’s emotional absence — he needs to be prompted about the new coiffure, of course — makes the woman determined to get outside help.
The third scene, when the downhearted woman calls on one of China’s apparently many marriage interventionists to not only do a little detective work, but to also remedy what she has discovered, completes the first act.
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