‘Whitetail’ Review: From Nanouk Leopold’s Frustratingly Imbalanced Irish Drama Emerges a Star-Making Performance from Natasha O’Keeffe [C+] CIFF

There’s nothing like seeing a star-making performance. Natasha O’Keeffe is a face that will be mostly familiar to those who watch British television, thanks to her recurring roles across the years on shows like Peaky Blinders and Misfits. But with Whitetail, the new movie from writer-director Nanouk Leopold, she gets the chance to be the singular lead of a feature film. And damn, does she make an impression. Leopold has given her an incredible showcase for her abilities, with O’Keeffe building a character where she can use her talents to show both maximized emotion and more subtle internal work. It’s a truly invigorating performance, made even more impressive by the fact that the film surrounding her is very stagnant, to the point of trying viewers’ patience. 

But you’d never guess that based on the opening scene. It’s a stunning sequence revolving around the younger version of Jen – the character played in adult form by O’Keeffe (here played by Abby Fitz) – and her boyfriend Oscar (Seán Treacy). The lovers have found a place to themselves in the dense woods of their south Irish town. After the expected youthful adventures, a heart-stopping occurrence immediately destroys not only their dalliance but ensures that the rest of their time on Earth will be forever affected by this one day in the spring of their lives. It’s a bold way to start a movie, and Leopold stages it perfectly. The revelation of what has happened and the abrupt emotional shift of the characters from flirtatious joy to stomach-churning emotional distress is marvelously directed and performed by the young actors. It’s truly as chilling as anything found in the best horror films.

From there, the film jumps ahead to follow Jen as a thirtysomething adult, still traipsing through the same woods, but this time as a forest ranger responsible for keeping the lush environment safe and sustained. She spends her days setting up security cameras and cleaning up any errant trash left by irresponsible visitors. As her story begins, Jen has begun noticing signs of illegal nighttime hunting in her woods, including mysterious figures on her camera footage and, disturbingly, headless deer corpses that she discovers with increasing regularity every morning. At the same time, she assists her ailing father Daniel (Andrew Bennett) while doing her best to not let her traumatic past catch up to her, a task which she’s often unsuccessful in accomplishing on the daily, as evidenced by her overdrinking and startling outbursts. She begins to feel even more unsteady when the now-grown-up Oscar (Aaron McCusker) returns to town.

Through it all, the camera stays focused on O’Keeffe for nearly the entire runtime. The variety of emotional reactions conveyed by the gifted actress is truly remarkable. What’s even more impressive is how much of the film features her by herself in dialogue-free scenes where she must use her physicality to effectively communicate her character’s pain, wistfulness, brief contentment, and other wide-ranging feelings. O’Keeffe is clearly an actress in complete control of her instrument. In one scene where she receives bad news from Oscar, her head tilts up at the perfect angle, her nostrils flare, and her face twitches, like a fearful animal deciding to flee or fight. Here – and in many other moments – she shows the audience just how shaken she is, all while not uttering a single word. It’s almost as if she’s puppeteering her own body to a minuscule degree. Despite the staid pace of the film, O’Keeffe is never anything less than completely compelling.

But besides the actress’ admirable efforts, Leopold’s film vacillates between being numbingly muted and off-puttingly obvious. Too many scenes feature extraneous characters in Jen’s life bluntly saying exactly what’s on their minds, like a former lover asking “Why didn’t we work?” or an acquaintance inquiring “Why didn’t you marry?” These instances are repetitive throughout the screenplay, and they always feel startlingly clichéd. And when the characters aren’t interrogating Jen like a nosey aunt at a holiday party, the film stretches out across long takes to an interminable degree.

Leopold does excel, however, as a visual filmmaker. The woods are a naturally gorgeous shooting location, giving the film a mysterious, beautiful visual quality that’s well-captured by Frank van den Eeden’s cinematography. His camera glides through the pastoral landscapes like some sort of gentle, observational creature. But it’s not just Mother Nature that gets the star treatment – the interior, domestic scenes are also well lit, with unexpected compositions and framings breaking up the otherwise monotonous film.

Still, O’Keeffe really is that great, giving a physical performance that does a better job at providing the film with depth than the shockingly shallow spoken words. She’s at times shown to be tired, exasperated, angry, bewildered, and, most powerfully, filled with wonder. Her performance of a woman struggling across the course of her life to make up for a horrible accident makes for a fascinating character study, even if the movie in which that character exists isn’t doing as much work to tell an effective story as its talented central performer.

Grade: C+

This review is from the 2025 Chicago International Film Festival. There is no U.S. distribution at this time.

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Cody Dericks

Cody Dericks has been obsessed with movies and awards ever since he first grabbed a giant coffee table book about the Oscars at the Scholastic Book Fair. He’s been consuming every type of film ever since. In addition, he’s an avid theatre lover and always has thoughts and opinions on all things to do with Broadway and the Tony Awards.

He currently resides in Chicago and is a proud member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics. He also writes and podcasts for Next Best Picture and co-hosts his own podcast “Halloweeners: A Horror Movie Podcast.” You can follow him on Twitter, Letterboxd, and Bluesky @codymonster91

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