Proxy 2014

Esther Woodhouse is introduced as a pregnant woman walking home from a doctor’s appointment, only to be struck by a hoodie-wearing assailant who brute-forcibly drives a brick into her abdomen. Despite urgent efforts in the emergency room, her baby is delivered stillborn via cesarean section. With the baby conceived through a sperm donor and little obvious support from family or friends, a hospital social worker suggests Esther attend a support group for grieving parents, hoping the circle might offer some steadiness in a time of hollowed expectations.

At the support group, Esther befriends Melanie Michaels, a woman who claims that a drunk driver killed her husband and her child. The two women form a tentative bond in the shared ache of loss, even as Esther’s own mind drifts toward a more unsettled, unsettled mix of attention and resentment that comes with pregnancy and public sympathy. The group’s quiet routine becomes a mirror for Esther’s growing sense that she is both seen and used by others for what she carries inside her.

The story tightens its grip when, in a department store, Esther witnesses Melanie suddenly scream that her son Peyton has been kidnapped and begs a security guard for help. Esther follows Melanie into the parking lot and then inside the store as Melanie, alone, takes Peyton out of her car. Esther’s reaction is chillingly ambiguous: a small, almost knowing smile crosses her face as she watches what unfolds, hinting at a complicity that will unfold in disturbing ways.

Back at Esther’s home, the attacker appears again and Esther is dragged from the kitchen. The assailant is revealed as Anika Barön, Esther’s lover, who has carried out the initial attack at Esther’s request. Anika’s jealousy surfaces when she asks about Melanie, but Esther dismisses the concern, keeping the focus on her own private agenda and the dangerous, blurred lines in their relationship.

Esther then invites Melanie to her home and probes into Melanie’s family, to seemingly confirm Melanie’s version of events. Melanie clings to the drunk-driver story, insisting that her own loss is the measure of truth. Esther speaks with a brittle candor about how she loved being pregnant because it drew attention to her, but she insists she never wanted to be a mother. A troubling kiss follows, with Esther declaring Melanie the only person who truly understood her. Melanie, however, rejects the intimacy and then slams Esther with the blunt truth: Peyton is alive. A sharp slap and a firm demand—Esther must never contact Melanie again—mark the end of that fragile moment.

Lured by a sense of control, Esther steals Anika’s truck and heads toward Melanie’s house. She enters with a crowbar, moving through the home with practiced caution until she discovers that Melanie’s husband Patrick is also alive. Esther evades Melanie and Patrick and makes a grim discovery: Peyton is alive, but Esther drowns him in the bathroom. When Melanie finds Peyton’s body, she is devastated, and Esther coldly accuses Melanie of wanting him dead so they could be together. The volatile night ends with Patrick returning wielding a shotgun and killing Esther. Anika, who has been jailed in the interim, later learns of Esther’s death but remains unconvinced about Esther’s involvement and vows to uncover the Michaels family’s true identities to seek revenge.

In the days that follow, Melanie sinks deeper into grief. She meets friends for lunch, collects Peyton’s belongings from his school, and reaches out to a newspaper to tell the world about her child’s murder. Anika’s attempt to contact the newspaper is thwarted by security, and Melanie’s character continues to blur into a public narrative of tragedy and weaponized grieving. Later, Melanie breaks into Esther’s house to retrieve the card bearing Esther’s number and encounters Anika in a private, unsettling moment—Anika is found masturbating on Esther’s bed. Patrick’s mental state frays further, as he becomes disgusted by Melanie’s suggestion of a new child and entertains grotesque fantasies about leaving Esther alive simply to torture her.

Patrick’s vigilance about Anika’s truck—its registration, its silent standstill—leads to a police warning that stops short of any actual theft, and he grapples with the wrenching realization that his wife has been attending the support group in secret for a year, occasionally claiming Peyton was abducted. He confronts Melanie with the truth he has learned, and Melanie denies everything, insisting she needs to leave the relationship.

Meanwhile, Anika, consumed by rage over Esther’s death, works to locate the Michaels family. She discovers where they are through police information, drives to their home, and ties up Melanie, intending to wait for Patrick so they can torture and kill both of them. Melanie songlines through fear and pragmatism, insisting that Patrick is gone and perhaps never coming back. Yet when Anika hears running water in the bathroom, she suspects Patrick is present, only to find him dead instead. Melanie, seizing the moment, breaks free and points a gun at Anika, thanking her for the opportunity to reclaim some form of control over their intertwined fates. Melanie imagines a future—two years hence—where she’s been interviewed on TV, written a memoir about the double murder that propelled her revenge, advocated for child safety, and announced a new life that includes another pregnancy.

The confrontation crescendos as Anika wrenches a hammer from the scene while Melanie wields a shotgun. The exact outcome remains unresolved, but the narrative leaves a stark image of two furious, broken women locked in a precarious, dangerous stalemate, each driven by grief, possessiveness, and a desire to rewrite a story that had already claimed so much.

In the quiet aftershocks of these events, the film’s tension lingers as a meditation on how trauma can warp love, trust, and the limits of mercy. It remains a portrait of how grief can morph into harmful obsession, and how the pursuit of control—whether through sex, violence, or manipulation—can spiral into a life where even the people closest to us become unpredictable, dangerous echoes of the original pain.