Downloading Nancy (2008)

17% of critics liked it
(29 reviews)
45% of users liked it
(8,826 ratings)

A self-destructive housewife takes what may be her final step into the abyss in this independent psychological drama. Nancy Stockwell (Maria Bello) is a woman edging into her forties who has fallen into a deep and prolonged state of depression, finding her only solace in self-inflicted pain. Nancy… More A self-destructive housewife takes what may be her final step into the abyss in this independent psychological drama. Nancy Stockwell (Maria Bello) is a woman edging into her forties who has fallen into a deep and prolonged state of depression, finding her only solace in self-inflicted pain. Nancy has grown weary of her relationship with her husband, Albert (Rufus Sewell), and one day he comes home from work to find a note in which Nancy says she's decided to visit an old friend for a few days. When Nancy doesn't call after several days, Albert begins to worry that something is wrong, and he soon learns that Nancy hasn't told him the truth. Nancy has struck up an on-line relationship with Louis Farley (Jason Patric), who has a passion for violent sex, and she has decided to meet with him in person, but she has more in mind than just a fling -- she believes that Louis is the man who can end her misery by killing her. Also featuring Amy Brenneman as Nancy's analyst, Downloading Nancy was the first English-language feature from Swedish filmmaker Johan Renck. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 42 min.
Directed By: Johan Renck
Written By: Pamela Cuming, Lee H. Ross
Genres: Mystery & Suspense, Drama

In Theaters: Jan 21, 2008 Wide
On DVD: Jan 12, 2010
Studio: Strand Releasing

Critic Reviews

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
You can't really blame Bello for taking every chance available to let her monster talent off its chain, even when the opportunity takes the form of something so ill conceived and unworthy (and dull and ridiculous) as Downloading Nancy.
Kyle Smith, New York Post
Some suspense arises about just how far the woman's sickness will take her, but it's overwhelmed by the pointlessness of the story.
Manohla Dargis, New York Times
Downloading Nancy is a nasty exploitation flick tarted up with art-house actors and psychobabble.
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
What makes the movie a trial to sit through isn't just the heroine's pain-freak tastes. It's that a kinkfest with this blah an emotional spectrum is selling its own chic form of puritanism -- sex with all the life force repressed.
Rex Reed, New York Observer
Not only does it waste the audience's time with 102 minutes of misery and despair, but it also trashes the talents of four fine actors who should have stayed in bed reading better screenplays that deserve attention and enhance careers.
Elena Oumano, Village Voice
When you peel away this film's complex performances, at the core of its drawn-out suicide spectacle is pain so extreme, so alienating, and, in the end, so pointless.
Kam Williams, Sly Fox
A tawdry tale which suggests that in the Internet Age, if you're contemplating suicide but can't quite summon up the nerve to do yourself in, you might surf S&M chat rooms to find a sadist whose fetish corresponds with your masochistic tendencies.
Jules Brenner, Cinema Signals
Tortuous, painful, confusing, contrived. It's enough to put the viewer on the couch.
Rossiter Drake, San Francisco Examiner
Bello throws herself into Nancy admirably. Yet the film squanders her talents, and what's left of our patience, en route to a finale that is neither surprising nor illuminating: Like the rest of the movie, it's misery for misery's sake.
Ron Wilkinson, Monsters and Critics
A film that may be too heavy for its own good. Christopher Doyle fans will love it while tolerating the harshness of the story.
Karina Longworth, SpoutBlog
Director Johan Renck essentially builds Nancy and Albert's reality out of an aggregation of overwrought kitsch... and so what seem like occasional lapses into deadpan moments of fantasy aren't always productive in contrast. Heavily art directed for unplea
Avi Offer, NYC Movie Guru
Boasts a raw, brave performance by Maria Bello and a stylish cinematography, but suffers from too much style over substance. Its dull, stilted screenplay has poorly developed characters and lacks any real suspense.
Kurt Loder, MTV
Maria Bello and Jason Patric in a world of pain.
Brian Tallerico, Movie Retriever
An amazing example of talented actors doing their best to make something genuine of a complex concept but being betrayed by writers and a director who seem afraid to really let the film connect.
Pete Hammond, Boxoffice Magazine
Maria Bello's courageous performance should find critical admiration but will not be enough for this spare and difficult drama to find much of an audience in its limited theatrical runs.
Noel Murray, AV Club
A chilly, bleak film about characters so programmatic that their plight is easy to shrug off.
Jesse Hassenger, Filmcritic.com
creates a deadening sense of ennui not through empathy or lived-in performances, but tedium.
Kevin Lee, Time Out New York
For all the bad behavior on display, the emotional stakes remain hazily defined.
Kam Williams, NewsBlaze
A tawdry tale which suggests that in the Internet Age, if you're contemplating suicide but can't quite summon up the nerve to do yourself in, you might surf S&M chat rooms to find a sadist whose fetish corresponds with your masochistic tendencies.
Ryan Stewart, Slant Magazine
An emotionally sterile and self-serious terminal disease drama without a moment of levity to be found from first frame to last.

Read all 20 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Jim H

Most films that explore sadomasochism do so in ways that can still be appealing and alluring to an audience comprised of people with relatively normal, well-adjusted ideas about sex and sexuality, but this is a notable exception. The sadomasochistic scenes in <i>Downloading… More
Most films that explore sadomasochism do so in ways that can still be appealing and alluring to an audience comprised of people with relatively normal, well-adjusted ideas about sex and sexuality, but this is a notable exception. The sadomasochistic scenes in <i>Downloading Nancy</I> are fucking brutal, cringe-worthy, and unrelenting, and Bello and Patric are nakedly committed to "going there," living the realities of their characters. At its core, there is indeed little to this story, and we should be given some reason to hope for a different ending than what's inevitable. This lack of any true suspense is the film's major flaw. But by the same token, I think we go to independent movies to see a purposeful rejection of Hollywood's common narratives. Overall, this film is dark, disturbing, depressing, nihilistic, and courageous - the perfect date movie.
Eric S

First of all, this film is by no means a feel good, popcorn popping piece of cinema. It's a rather dark, disturbing tale shot in quite dismal premises to tell a story that is real, but not one people want to hear. However, I was glued to the screen due to the brilliant acting… More
First of all, this film is by no means a feel good, popcorn popping piece of cinema. It's a rather dark, disturbing tale shot in quite dismal premises to tell a story that is real, but not one people want to hear. However, I was glued to the screen due to the brilliant acting performances by Maria Bello and Jason Patric. They portray characters whose tattered souls take comfort in one another through the internet using e-mail, pictures, and promises of sordid sexual encounters. Nancy(Bello), is a severely damaged woman due to being a victim of child abuse, and self mutilation is something that she simply can't keep herself from comitting. Her husband only cares about his virtual golf game he's set up in a downstairs room as she is suffering above. She sees a therapist, but what is it that Nancy ultimately needs? When it comes down to it, a download can contain various information, good and bad, but it does not however contain a pulse.
Glenn G

A tough sit - very good performance from Maria Bello - but man is this dreary, slow, dark stuff. After a while, you just want to scream at the screen, "Just die already!". Not without its merits, but I can't imagine someone wanting to sit through this who doesn't… More
A tough sit - very good performance from Maria Bello - but man is this dreary, slow, dark stuff. After a while, you just want to scream at the screen, "Just die already!". Not without its merits, but I can't imagine someone wanting to sit through this who doesn't have to vote for the Independent Spirit Awards.
Walter M

In "Downloading Nancy," Nancy(Maria Bello) is a housewife who has been married to Albert(Rufus Sewell) for fifteen years. One day, she leaves home on a bus, leaving a note for her husband that she has gone to Baltimore. Four days later and no news, Albert has not yet… More
In "Downloading Nancy," Nancy(Maria Bello) is a housewife who has been married to Albert(Rufus Sewell) for fifteen years. One day, she leaves home on a bus, leaving a note for her husband that she has gone to Baltimore. Four days later and no news, Albert has not yet called the police. Nancy is an incest survivor who sees a caring psychiatrist(Amy Brenneman) but it does not stop her from continually cutting herself. If Albert were not so totally engrossed in golfing, he might have noticed her looking on the internet for an outlet for her pain. It is there that she finds Louis(Jason Patric). As Susie Bright once pointed out, there is no connection between having been abused and a sadomasochistic lifestyle. So, while Nancy having been sexually abused as a child could not explain her sexuality, it could explain her lack of emotional development. At this point, she is emotionally a teenager, always needing attention and selfishly pursuing her goal at the expense of the people who care for her. Through a trippy time structure that I have seen before, "Downloading Nancy," a darkly perverse movie, makes a valiant attempt to tell her story with some success due to a fearless performance from Maria Bello.
nefnie l

I knew going in not to expect a feel-good movie. Everything about this movie - the way it's filmed, the characters, the dreary decor, and its story - is completely dismal. It felt like a heavy, dark cloak just descended upon me. There was nothing positive in this film. Now,… More
I knew going in not to expect a feel-good movie. Everything about this movie - the way it's filmed, the characters, the dreary decor, and its story - is completely dismal. It felt like a heavy, dark cloak just descended upon me. There was nothing positive in this film. Now, where's my old stack of Care Bear videos?
Daisy M

This film is very hard to watch but it is a very well made and it allows us into the world of a woman fighting with pain. It seems we're much more in dept at causing and prolonging each others pain than anything else. In this film, Maria Bello plays a victim of childhood abuse… More
This film is very hard to watch but it is a very well made and it allows us into the world of a woman fighting with pain. It seems we're much more in dept at causing and prolonging each others pain than anything else. In this film, Maria Bello plays a victim of childhood abuse who now suffers at the hands of an uncaring husband played by Rufus Sewell. She also gets involved with a stranger on the internet. The performances are perfect, while the cinematography and the score show qualities that perfectly fit the story.
d j

Ok, the girl meets a guy online, she wants him to kill her but the online man falls in love with her instead...... very twisted! This movie is very slow & feels like it should be on the Lifetime Tv channel network. If you like dark dramas or any of the stars then give this a try.… More
Ok, the girl meets a guy online, she wants him to kill her but the online man falls in love with her instead...... very twisted! This movie is very slow & feels like it should be on the Lifetime Tv channel network. If you like dark dramas or any of the stars then give this a try. After I was done I felt compelled to watch a Pixar or Disney film to get back to normal again. jjust tooo depressing of a movie.....