With the constant movement of the world, whether it be politics, climate change, or world-changing events it can often feel selfish to focus on personal fears and woes. At times it is hard to focus on the world outside our homes when we become crippled with anxiety and worries about how today will go for us. I’m sure many fantasize about a life where they don’t have to leave the comforts of the home and not have to venture out to the world and all the misery it brings. Unfortunately, this comfort can just as easily turn into a prison far more terrifying than the world outside it. The Wolf Hour shows just how claustrophobic the isolation of never leaving one’s home can be and the true misery that it can bring.

In a particularly bad neighborhood in New York, June Leigh (Naomi Watts) sits and waits completely isolated from the world. She has her groceries delivered and cannot bring herself to leave her apartment, even to confront the person who has been harassing her via her intercom. It is only revealed, when she calls out to her old lover Margot for money that we find that June was once an acclaimed author. After finding pages of an unpublished book and begging June to publish it, Margot is asked to leave on the grounds that June doesn’t want her money or her pitty. As we watch her money begin to dwindle, June struggles to free herself from the prison of her apartment and experience the world outside.

When I say that The Wolf Hour is a character piece, I feel that what I’m saying is an understatement. The isolation and utter aloneness that June experiences is translated incredibly to the viewer. Through the course of my viewing, I was always waiting for something awful to happen to June. Whether it was the residents of her neighborhood or the infamous .45 Caliber Killer that the news spoke of, I could never shake the feeling June was in danger. The claustrophobic environment of the apartment, coupled with the music being all classical instruments that flip from being rhythmic to chaotic creates a tension that never truly releases the audience.

The film’s greatest strengths besides the smart cinematography are the strong acting and equally strong writing. Naomi Watts not only is unrecognizable, playing a brunette contrary to her usual blonde hair and looking severely malnourished but playing cold and haunted. Until it is clear that Margot can also hear the intercom buzz, there is a clear possibility that June is losing her mind within the isolation of her apartment. It is this coldness and bitter personality that she slowly finds hope in leaving her prison and the fact that she finds her strength in such a dire situation, in the end, makes her triumph that much more enjoyable.

The Wolf Hour paints a very bleak picture of anyone that has ever chosen to isolate themselves from the world in light of an unforeseen tragedy. That while self-preservation can pull us out of the darkness, it is also those around us that will light the way to freedom. June is not alone in her struggles to free herself, and it is, in fact, some of the most unlikely people that bring about her salvation. The film’s ending does ring with ambiguousness, wondering if returning to a world that previously caused our isolation will result in the same struggles and the same prisons.