Director Xackery Irving's suspenseful Nothing Without You transfuses an amalgamation of genre archetypes together to make something new and fresh. Charged with the erotic tension of Fatal Attraction and Wicker Park, seen through the inconsistent perspective of an unstable narrator such as those in neo-noirs like Memento or Shutter Island, and with a pace like Following's that never quits, Nothing Without You is an independently made thriller that bests many of its Hollywood contemporaries.
If one were to obscure one's vision during the film's opening narration, one would assume that the typical morning routine being described in the monologue would greet one's eyes at their uncovering. But if one participated in the aforementioned exercise, distorted and twisted enactments of a "morning routine" would be discovered as the narration's accompanying visuals. In Nothing Without You's intriguing start, shot almost like a dream-scape with its blurred close-ups, sharp light compositions, and eerie musical score, diagnosed schizophrenic Jennifer Stidger's voice-over goes on as she peers through an attic peephole down at the couple in bed below, stares at the same couple from across the street as they exit their home, and steals and sniffs their dry-cleaning while they are away. Jennifer has lived in and out of institutions her whole adult life, her dependency issues and delusions of intimacy her motivations to stalk men she barely knows.
Institutionalized at their first meeting, Jennifer is told by politician Michael Greenwood, "Everyone has a little trouble now and again. It's how we decide to live our lives, that's what matters." Played by Joshua Loren, Michael exudes the same dark sexual power that Patrick Wilson embodied so well in films like Little Children and even Hard Candy. After her release, Jennifer orchestrates a passionate carnal encounter between them in full knowledge of his marital status. Not even waiting for his inevitable rejection, Jennifer begins her secret and longing-filled prowls through his life. It is Michael and his wife seen through the peephole in the film's opening sequence. Jennifer's witnessing of and subsequent arrest for Michael's wife's murder set the plot in motion though, as she attempts to prove her sanity and innocence to psychiatrist Charles Branham.
After her escape from a hospital, Jennifer's flawed perception of reality is the audience's only guide and Branham the only apparent touchstone to what is real as a scandalous conspiracy is uncovered to be her only salvation. Wisely confining Jennifer's "brand of crazy" to the easily sympathized with (i.e. her violence is never malicious, always justified as self-defense or preservation), director Xachery Irving makes few missteps in his thriller's construction beyond his sore need of a higher-quality camera, occasional instances of overly-"talk-y" voice-over, and incidental employment of cliched and hackneyed action-flick one-liners ("It's just a job!", "You couldn't save her, but you can save me!"). Recalling cinematic genre traditions in its creation of something wholly original, Nothing Without You stands out as a uniquely suspenseful independent thriller.
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