The Heirloom Review: Lockdown Woes

Ben Petrie’s The Heirloom is an intriguing, deceptive, and amusing metafictional comedy-drama that keeps viewers guessing.

It takes guts for real-life couple Ben Petrie and Grace Glowicki to expose their relationship and interactions across this film, with the pair acting opposite one another as semi-fictionalised versions of themselves. While Petrie wrote and directed the feature, Glowicki co-produced it alongside him and Justin Elchakieh. Their hands are all over The Heirloom, but even still it’s near-impossible to tell how much of this movie is ripped from reality, and what moments have been exaggerated or completely fabricated. The fun is in not knowing, with the film constantly reinventing itself across its brief runtime, becoming more meta by the minute.

The Heirloom begins with Eric (Petrie) and Allie (Glowicki) deciding to adopt a dog, which soon unravels into an attempt to make a film about them integrating the anxious canine into their living space. It’s not so much that there are constant jokes that makes the movie such an amusing experience, but that it perfectly balances the comedic and dramatic aspects of these protagonists’ semi-crazed states of mind. Treating Eric’s mounting sense of dejection with the creeping tension usually reserved for horror films, with a score by composer Casey Manierka-Quaile that feels genuinely ominous, The Heirloom’s overall presentation is what supplies its steady stream of humour. Petrie knows not to take this story too seriously, recognising that much of its humour comes from intentionally overdoing its haunting elements, like Eric’s voice-over narration repeating a command for their new dog — such as the word ‘bad’ — again and again as he pores over a screenplay he’s been working on for years, his frustrations mounting.

It is one thing to embrace weirdness in a general sense or as made-up characters, and another thing entirely to dissect your own peculiar qualities and moments and act them out. Petri and Glowicki are fearless performers, yet what’s most admirable isn’t their bravery in documenting these truly uncomfortable moments, but how their earnest portrayals make these relationship dynamics feel believable. This is especially impressive in light of the film’s metafictional elements, where a scene from Eric’s new movie concept plays out as if it’s we’re watching the final product, with no cameras present in any shots, only for this immersion to be broken completely when it lingers on one shot as this couple keep doing new takes to perfect this interaction. 

The film’s climactic discussion, where Eric and Allie confront what they want out of their relationship, plays out as if it’s part of a finished scene, only for a crew member to wander into frame midway through it, with Eric and Allie continuing their conversation as if nothing had happened. Even with all this controlled chaos at hand, where the viewer is continually hoodwinked, every single conversation feels like it is ultimately coming from a real place. What starts off as a story about getting a dog becomes a movie about one, which then evolves into a reflection on how these protagonists envision their future, with each of these moving parts tying into this endlessly metafictional experience. Just as impressive is the fact that The Heirloom never feels like it unnaturally jumps to a new plot beat, despite constantly eschewing traditional or familiar storytelling. 

The vast majority of the film takes place in the couple’s apartment, but it hardly ever feels that way, which is both a strength and weakness. The story is interesting enough to ensure that you don’t get sick of looking at the same rooms and backdrops, but while that would be a consistently great quality in almost any other film, it also works to The Heirloom’s detriment given that it’s centred on the COVID lockdowns. When watching a movie about a couple going a little stir crazy from being cooped up in one space, it would help to feel this encroaching claustrophobia — and the chaos it inspires — as the plot develops. These characters are stuck with one another day in and day out, which can be a tough burden for even the most loving of couples, yet there’s nothing about the way this film is directed that captures this feeling. 

It isn’t always clear what The Heirloom wants to be at its core. Its trickery is fun to behold, while the faux thriller / horror elements make for enjoyably unnerving comedy, but what it wants to say about these characters and their COVID projects is hard to place at first. Is it about relationship struggles, the highs and lows of being a pet owner, growing up, or something more meta focusing on the boundaries between reality and fiction? While each one of these topics presents interesting thematic ground, this is more of a personal and intimate movie than one that offers much reflection on its themes.

The film is best viewed as a documentation of the woes and inspiration caused by COVID lockdowns. These characters are forced to contend with a monotonous reality where each day blends into one hazy mess after a while, all while having to persevere through everyday life. This idea isn’t at all dissimilar to constantly attempting to recreate a real interaction by performing take after take in what seems like an endless barrage of scenes, each one losing their value the more they’re repeated. Whether it’s the visceral impact of the lockdowns as they were happening or its influence over the years, there’s something that remains unknowable about that time period and how to confront or discuss it as a way of living, especially now that it’s been almost half a decade since these restrictions were in place. 

Even if The Heirloom doesn’t leave much to ponder on after its end credits roll, it brilliantly uses the blurred lines between fiction and reality to convey a state of being that is impossible to truly understand or define. Petrie hasn’t just crafted a movie inspired by the lockdowns, but one that maps onto the unique rhythm and irreality of that strange time period, replete with enjoyably uncomfortable comedy and plenty of twists and turns.

The Heirloom will be released on digital platforms in the U.S. on June 10, 2025.