So a friend of mine turned me on to the recent film (seen via streaming, from last year) Dragonfly (2025) that I knew nothing about. It stars the terrific character actress Andrea Riseborough as Colleen, a downtrodden British gal with no family or friends, no job, and a seriously jaundiced view of life. But she has one precious thing to make her life worth living: her big dog, Saber.
Saber is a costar of the film, in the animal world at least, although the human costar is Brenda Blethyn, who plays Elsie, a widowed woman living next door to Colleen in a council-house neighborhood in the north of England, an area that seems to signify the term “Broken Britain.” Jobs and money are scarce. Elsie’s middle-aged son is being threatened with being “redundant,” as in he’s on the verge of getting fired or laid off. (He seems frightened, uptight, not particularly warm and compassionate.) Elsie and Colleen are neighbors and hit it off, as Colleen befriends Elsie and helps to care for her. Meanwhile the only other thing in Colleen’s life is Saber, with whom she sleeps. (As I allow my beagle-mutt to sleep in my bed this made me connect with Colleen and sympathize with her, naturally.)
For about the first half of the film it’s a quiet, careful depiction of these two women’s lives. There’s a bit of mystery: As the viewer you’re a bit suspicious of Colleen through some of her actions, and suspect she might be trying to take advantage of Elsie somehow, to either rob her or for some other reason. But she’s also caring and kind, so that suspicion seems mainly to arise from the mystery of intentions: Why is she being so nice to Elsie? What’s up with that? Which is itself a jaundiced view of the world: Why shouldn’t she be nice to Elise? When Elsie asks that very question, Colleen replies, “We’re neighbors. Neighbors should look out for each other.”
The final half of the film is heartbreaking and stunning. I won’t give it away. But as devastating as it is, it’s a fresh view of the world, not a rehash of superheroes, aliens, ghosts, monsters, and other silliness. The lives of Colleen and Elsie are heartbreaking but they seem real.