Downloading Nancy (2008)
AKA: –
Directed by: Johan Renck
Starring: Maria Bello (Nancy), Jason Patric (Louis), Rufus Sewell (Albert), Amy Brenneman (Therapist), Michael Nyqvist (Stan)
Country: United States
Language: English (Optional Eng Subs)
Runtime: 01:36:46
Genres: Based on a True Story, Sado-Masochism, Abuse, Relationship outside marriage, Internet-related, Misery-Depression, Sexual-Violence against Women, Self-Harm, Torture
Plot – Spoilers:
A childless couple Nancy and Albert are beyond scraping even the dregs of their marriage. Nancy suffers crippling depression from years of torturous sexual abuse by her uncle, while Albert is ill-equipped to deal with her misery and feels helplessly irritated when he sees her snap into it. He’d rather zone into motivational audios, and the only thing he seems to enjoy is the buddy-time he spends with the boys from office.
But now Nancy’s gone. Off to Baltimore to meet Louis whom she met on the internet and who’s promised to fulfill the only true desire left in her – a final flourish as she ends it all.
Downloading Nancy is based on the case of Sharon Lopatka from the ’90s, which was also claimed to be the first arrest that was made, based off recovered emails.
Favorite Bits:
Maria Bello is pretty great as Nancy and brings realistic nuances to her performance – like often when she’s excited in the company of Louis, her demeanour and behaviour changes to that of a little girl – a possible throwback to the periods of abuse endured as a child when she was mindfucked beyond repair about the difference between being loved and being hurt.
Nancy’s situation seems to be called Autassassinophilia in psychology.
Not some of you niggas getting horny during this movie..seek help, especially professional!
i watch this movie when im at my lowest for a pick me up ty to this site for featuring it❤️
garbage drama movie, for teenage girls
After looking up the people who this movie was based off… I will say that the casting was VERY generous lmao
Reminds me a lot of the movie BUG… also a fantastic movie.
bug was incredible
This was actually really good. Nancy’s pain felt really familiar to me. If this was handled by any other director it likely would have been far more exploitative and unfocused, but a lot was handled quite sensitively. I’m honestly surprised, but I’m not surprised by how it was received so negatively by Sundance. That crowd is always championing disturbing movies only when it doesn’t challenge them. Seeing Nancy’s self-harm and determination to die in the way she wants to was really felt and not something people really want but should see. Maybe it would make them more attentive to people with mental illnesses.
Wow, this movie was particularly powerful for me because I had a close friend like Nancy. Not as extreme as Nancy but close enough to make me feel depressed. I feel bad for Louis, he fell in love with Nancy not understand how mentally ill she was, in the end he tried to fix her but with her that just wasn’t possible. I overall feel most bad for Nancy, when you close yourself off to love the way she did at the end man… I can only imagine the kind of stuff she had to have been going through in her head. I don’t feel bad for Albert at all, fuck him.
What’s your favorite scene from this movie ?
very good film. very very good film. it’s less insidious than most films i’ve seen around on effedupmovies, and also less gory. they just show it as it is without romanticizing it or going overboard with buckets of fake blood. i did appreciate the rawness of how nancy dealt with mental health. the washed out colour pallete was a very good aesthetic choice and i noticed the colours got a bit brighter towards the ending scene with her death, which was so fucked up. light at the end of the tunnel “there’s still hope” type beat turned on its head. i also appreciated how they never showed the self harm in extreme detail. there’d always be one element omitted, whether the lack of cuts shown or the subtle angling of her body so you can’t see the actual self harm being executed. the scene with the little girl staring back at nancy in the hardware store really hit because it kind looked like a parallel between her childhood self and older self.. kinda conjugated together in time and space. i’m sure she traumatized the kid, but like that’s part of the whole scene. her childhood self was abused by her uncle and she grew up to be an adult with severe mental health problems and by hurting herself in a hardware store she passed on that trauma to a new set of eyes. which is so horrible and the isolated incident in the film does represent real life’s incidents. i… Read more »
Really is a good example of mental health and trauma, a lot better than other movies I’ve watched
It’s an amazing movie about relationships. Not everyone is normal, everyone needs someone to understand. Everyone needs someone to fill.
Loves the soundtracks, such a sad & depressing movie. 5/5 stars
People often re-live their pain and turn it into pleasure, to overcome the past trauma and to make them feel that they’re not powerless victims but only, to inflict further damages to themselves.
Agreed! I love the beautiful tragedy of this movie.
This movie has nothing to do with sex lol I can’t believe it they lied in the whole film
Excellent film which delves into the psychosexual sadomasochistic relationship between these three characters; a disinterested husband, his wife and her lover.
Dead eyed psychotic shit woman. If she’d had children they’d have met an untimely end in the garden pond. But of course it’s someone else’s fault. Toxic cunt.
How very astute and eloquent..NOT !
Life is easier and better without kids mentally ill or not. They are a fucking burden.
good got me kinda horny
wtaf is wrong with you man
irl she was a fat ugly bitch
and yeah wtf
Time to get some mental health help..if go and get the crap kicked out of you by a dominatrix.
Save your comments for YouTube. This is a safe space for the EffedUp :p 😛
That was great!
A really interesting watch, thanks Admin. I wonder why Nancy didn’t just take care of matters herself though, especially because she called Louis a “coward” for caring about her towards the end when she couldn’t even fulfil her own final wish.
According to the real story, the woman wanted to be tortured before death. I guess they wanted to tell that in the movie too, but subtly.
based on a true story..wow!—– a disturbing, sad and very good movie! arthouse de luxe!
thanks admin.