Spoonful of Sugar

Combining troubled babysitter and troubled child could have been problematic with an overload of oddness. But writer Leah Saint Marie and director Mercedes Bryce Morgan have come up with a solid enough accommodation.

Millicent (Morgan Saylor) has applied for a post of nanny for couple Rebecca (Katr Foster) and Jacob (Myko Oliver) to look after their son Johnny (Danilo Crovetti) who has mental health problems as well as extreme allergies, one wrong decision and it could kill him.

Despite not totally sure about Millicent (who says she is taking a semester of from her studies) they take her on and find that she gets along with Johnny, which is their main concern.

With Johnny forming a bond with Millicent, so Millicent starts to look towards Jacob. This while Rebecca is becoming jealous of Millicent’s relationship with Johnny. She can barely get close to him to the extent that he bites her if she tries. Then Millicent, who is taking LSD for her own problems, hits on the idea of trying some on Johnny.

There’s something very familiar about the set up though it is truly very unsettling too. The onus here is on a slowburn build-up, punctuated by the effects of the LSD on both Millicent and Johnny and some hallucinogenic sequences.

All the while there are tensions between Rebecca and Jacob, as the marriage looks to be falling apart before our eyes. He seems to be endlessly doing things in the garden, while Rebecca, a successful author is attending meetings pushing her book and hoping for another deal.

With all this (and more) going on, there’s a cobbled together look and feel to the movie. At times it feels disjointed, with so many ideas flying about though not to the point of incoherence.

That’s mainly down to Saylor who is convincing at not being all that she appears to be, without going swivel eyed on the audience, who as the film progresses and her thoughts are revealed so a degree of sympathy develops for her.

Spoonful of Sugar is available now on Shudder.