The Rule of Jenny Pen (dir. James Ashcroft)

by Jack Martin | Mar 11, 2025

Certificate: 15

Running Time: 104 mins

UK Distributor: Vertigo Releasing

UK Release Date: 14 March 2025

WHO’S IN THE RULE OF JENNY PEN?

Geoffrey Rush, John Lithgow, Nathaniel Lees, Thomas Sainbury, Ian Mune, Irene Wood, George Henare, Maaka Pohatu, Bruce Phillips, Holly Shanahan, Paolo Rotondo, Yvette Parsons, Ginette McDonald, Hilary Norris, Anapela Polataivao, Semu Filipo, Hannah Lynch, Nick Blake

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

James Ashcroft (director, writer), Eli Kent (writer), Catherine Fitzgerald and Orlando Stewart (producers), Matt Henley (cinematographer), Gretchen Peterson (editor)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

An elderly man (Lithgow) causes sadistic chaos in a nursing home…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON THE RULE OF JENNY PEN?

I’m not sure why I have to say this as though it’s something we should all be aware of, but elder abuse is bad. There is absolutely nothing good about causing physical and psychological harm to anyone, least of all elderly people who may not have the strength or wit to protect themselves, and anyone who participates in such a horrible activity is among the scummiest of scum buckets to ever walk this planet.

Somehow worse is witnessing such nasty mistreatment and being utterly powerless to step in and prevent it, which is how most of us will be feeling whilst watching The Rule of Jenny Pen, a film that treats elder abuse like the main attraction of the world’s meanest circus, where horrific things keep happening to old people in ways that are legitimately uncomfortable to watch. But credit to director and co-writer James Ashcroft (who adapts Owen Marshall’s short story of the same name) for having the common decency to compliment the nastiness with some strong filmmaking tricks and memorable performances that make it an effective watch, even if that discomfort overpowers everything else.

The film begins as arrogant judge Stefan Mortensen (Geoffrey Rush) suffers a stroke and winds up wheelchair-bound in a care home, where he’s surrounded by fellow residents of varying physical and mental impairments, as well as staff who are largely ignorant of their biggest concerns. Soon, the judge encounters a particularly unpleasant resident by the name of Dave Crealy (John Lithgow), who frequently carries a hand puppet made out of a doll with its eyes removed that he names “Jenny Pen”, and with it asserts his authority in the care home via a series of cruel acts that leave others terrified to even be in the same vicinity as him. A battle of wits thus begins between Stefan, whose own cognitive decline directly contrasts with his naïve belief that he’ll eventually recover from his stroke and be free to leave, and the schoolyard bully that is Dave.

The latter, whom Lithgow brings to life with such sadistic glee that you’re almost won over by his insatiable lust for cruelty among his peers, is one of those villains with no rules, no empathy, and not even a clear motive for why he’s doing all of this. Plain and simple, he is a pure bully, one who just likes to inflict harm onto others for some kind of sick personal thrill, and that’s it. That alone makes him more terrifying and more sinister than most other supernatural-based threats, or even someone with a specific agenda, for like the Joker in The Dark Knight this character revels in utter chaos and will stop at nothing to bring down anyone he sees fit, all with his creepy hand puppet that serves as a mere extension of his cruelty. Whether he’s groping bedridden residents and pulling on their attached catheters, or kicking those in wheelchairs that have already been falsely reported to the staff (who are perhaps some of the most gullible people to ever work in a care home), or telling racist jokes to a Māori patient, even manipulating a dementia-ridden woman to wander outside the home at night to her certain death, Lithgow’s Dave is an utter harbinger of evil that cannot and will not stop.

However, that’s also the tone that the rest of the film adopts, even before we see the fullest extent of this character’s nature, and it quickly becomes difficult to sit through. The Rule of Jenny Pen revels in mean-spiritedness from the opening scene, where Geoffrey Rush’s supposed hero berates a sobbing mother in his courtroom for seemingly allowing the crimes against her children to take place, and not long afterwards a drunken man in a wheelchair is lit on fire by his own cigarette and left to burn while nobody does anything to help. Ashcroft and co-writer Eli Kent also lean perhaps too heavily on the fear of aging for some of their cruellest punchlines, as characters experience such things as unconscious blips and incontinence with a menacing force that, in its own way, borders on the supernatural, which the filmmakers exploit for lasting effect that may cause some viewers to wish they never reach retirement age. Effective though it may be, the sadism can get repetitive, and makes the somewhat anticlimactic resolution feel all the more underwhelming since it follows scenes that should spell a much more fitting fate to certain individuals.

Ashcroft’s filmmaking, though, does elevate the film to where it hovers just slightly above its relentlessly nasty nature. The New Zealand director utilises some sharp sound design to reflect growing immobility of certain characters, while some chilling cinematography occasionally makes this care home feel like something out of a Dario Argento movie, with sinister red lighting coating a number of the film’s most unnerving sequences. Performance-wise, Lithgow is clearly the standout, though it is nice to see Geoffrey Rush in a major role again, and the Oscar-winning veteran has some memorably venomous sparring sessions with his utterly deranged co-star.

But in truth, the nastiness overshadows most if not all good qualities of The Rule of Jenny Pen. It is a deeply uncomfortable piece that revels in never-ending torment of elderly people which gets more and more unpleasant as it goes along, and unfortunately doesn’t have much else to say beyond how easy it is to bully and mistreat our vulnerable elders. At least John Lithgow is having a delightfully sadistic blast.

SO, TO SUM UP…

The Rule of Jenny Pen is a relentlessly mean-spirited thriller that repeatedly shows the sadistic bullying of elderly people by a delightfully twisted John Lithgow, but despite filmmaking strengths and memorable performances the film is often overshadowed by that lingering discomfort whilst watching it.