In The Royal Hotel, a captivating new film written and directed by Kitty Green, we follow two women who find themselves low on funds while backpacking through Australia. To make ends meet, they reluctantly take on bartending jobs at a remote mining town in the outback, which is predominantly male. Fully aware of the potential dangers and attention they may receive, they take precautions to stay safe and maintain their sanity as women. They dress appropriately, never separate from each other, and secure their doors at night. They handle rowdy patrons, laugh at bad jokes, and kick out the overly intoxicated. They even go as far as hiding their American identity by pretending to be Canadian.
However, despite their best efforts, an unsettling feeling lingers within them. The film thrives on the growing uncertainty these women face in their interactions with the men around them. They question whether the men’s comments are innocently flirtatious or predatory, whether their gazes are friendly or threatening, and whether anyone in the town can be trusted, regardless of appearances.
This sense of dread mirrors Green’s own reaction to the 2016 documentary Hotel Coolgardie, which served as inspiration for her film. The documentary follows two Finnish backpackers working at a bar in a small Australian town, highlighting the challenges and dangers they encounter. Green both confronted and confirmed her fears for women through this documentary. The film ends on a bleak note, but the women in Hotel Coolgardie did everything in their power to avoid harm, and their strength resonated with Green as she crafted her script. “The Scandinavian women and their ability to stand up for themselves and say no is something I was drawn to,” Green shared during our meeting in New York last month.
By adapting the backpackers’ story for The Royal Hotel, Green immerses the audience directly into the women’s experiences, removing the implied safety of a documentary crew. Hanna (played by Julia Garner) and Liv (Jessica Henwick) enter their new job fully aware of the overwhelming masculinity and the steep learning curve regarding cultural differences. However, the true complexity lies in their status as outsiders. They struggle to interpret every conversation or interaction, never truly knowing the intentions behind them.
Their gender and foreign status hold significant weight in every situation they encounter. The film emphasizes that their experience is not isolated; for young women like Hanna and Liv, certain social environments are unbearable without significant costs.
Green’s previous narrative film, The Assistant (2019), focused on a meek employee (Garner) working for an unseen studio executive based on Harvey Weinstein. The film’s power stemmed from the silence of many dialogue-free scenes, magnifying the protagonist’s inability to voice her concerns and the industry’s apathy towards her boss’s misconduct.
In contrast, The Royal Hotel is filled with chaotic noise due to its pub setting, which contributes to Hanna and Liv’s disorientation. Green and her co-writer, Oscar Redding, carefully replicate the language found within bars in isolated locations. These rowdy establishments serve as sanctuaries for locals while simultaneously creating miscommunication when visitors arrive. Crafting the thoughtless dialogue of the customers required meticulous consideration. “You want it to feel tacky,” Green explained. “They’re not the smartest guys in the world. They’re not going to have the best insult. They’re going to use the lowest-hanging fruit.”
At times, Green found inspiration close to home. One scene, revolving around an order of Dickens Cider, was taken directly from her own experience. Similar to Hotel Coolgardie, the women’s Finnish nationality attracts constant comments. Green wanted to incorporate equally banal jokes about Hanna’s blond hair in The Royal Hotel. The point was for these “jokes” to be ambiguous, blurring the line between harmless humor and degradation. The speaker’s intentions remain unclear. They might think they’re being funny, or they could be aiming to demean their target. Regardless, resilience is essential for Hanna and Liv, and being accommodating becomes a defense mechanism. They struggle to discern who in their environment is genuinely offensive, a familiar experience for anyone who has been on the receiving end of tasteless comments that may or may not be harmless.
The challenge of deciphering these intentions is exhausting because the men surrounding Hanna and Liv are not one-dimensional villains. Their boss, Billy (Hugo Weaving), may use rough language, but his financial stress partly explains his behavior. Matty (Toby Wallace), who makes the Dickens Cider joke, can be quite sweet, even inviting the women on a peaceful outing. Many of the bar’s patrons are simply lonely, working in isolation and longing for connection. As Green explained, they are “desperate for connection but failing at every attempt.”
The disagreements between Hanna and Liv about the men’s intentions, rather than the men themselves, become the film’s central conflict. The film wisely avoids picking sides as the women debate whether they should stay or leave. “Both of them are making choices, and I don’t see either choice being incorrect,” Green said. Hanna sees Dolly (Daniel Henshall), an aggressive binge-drinker, as a threat, while Liv considers him crude but manageable. Hanna thinks Liv is too accommodating, inviting more attention from men, while Liv believes Hanna is too defensive, constantly mistrusting others. The Royal Hotel sets a trap for viewers to judge the women’s responses rather than question the men’s behavior, mirroring the perspective of all the characters, including Hanna and Liv. Yes, the women fear the men’s potential actions, but they also fear they might be overreacting.
Ultimately, Green’s film leaves room for multiple interpretations. Perhaps Hanna was right, and at least one of the men had ill intentions. Or maybe Liv was correct, and what they perceived as aggression was merely the locals’ unique way of welcoming them. As The Royal Hotel traveled through the festival circuit, Green noticed contrasting audience reactions depending on cultural backgrounds. Australian viewers saw the men on-screen as kind and warm, while American viewers felt differently. “I screened it here [in America] for some friends,” Green recounted, “and they were like, as soon as Hugo Weaving arrives, ‘He’s deranged. The place is crazy.'”
However, one consistent aspect of the viewers’ experience is the expectation that the protagonist’s fate is sealed—an expectation shared by Green as she watched Hotel Coolgardie. The Royal Hotel is not merely an exploration of gender dynamics; it dissects the latent, sometimes paralyzing fear women face when unwanted attention is directed towards them. Yet, the film also prompts viewers to consider the source of that fear. Green has often been asked if her film is about masculinity, to which she responds with a sigh, “Where do I begin?”
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