TIFF 2024: Rebecca Hall's TV Series 'The Listeners' Offers a Languid but Unnerving Descent into Conspiracy

By Kayleigh Donaldson | TV | September 16, 2024 |

By Kayleigh Donaldson | TV | September 16, 2024 |

It’s called The Hum: a low-level, barely perceptible noise floating somewhere in the ether that goes unnoticed by the vast majority of people but is there for a scant few. When teacher Claire (Rebecca Hall) begins to hear it, she wonders if it’s a fridge or echoes of nearby construction work. Nothing makes it go away. There’s no medical explanation for it, even as she gets increasingly frequent nosebleeds and headaches. Everyone around Claire, including her husband and colleagues, looks at her as though she’s losing her mind. But then there’s Kyle (Ollie West), an outcast student from one of her classes who tells her that he can hear it too. And they’re not alone.

With the first two episodes of six premiering at TIFF and set for a BBC release sometime this year, The Listeners comes to us courtesy of Janicza Bravo, director of Zola, and is based on the novel by Jordan Tannahill, who also wrote every episode. The series makes some alterations to the source material, namely moving the setting from the U.S. to the UK. But don’t worry, the cultural changes are minimal, largely because the themes of growing societal paranoia and the allure of a cult-like explanation for the unknown are depressingly universal.

Bravo’s hand is evident in moments of surrealness, like Claire’s dreams of blood pouring from her ears. Like Zola, one of the 2020s’ best films about how we process trauma through dark humour and internet-friendly narratives, The Listeners has many striking moments where the mundane becomes sinister in a mere breath. Claire and Kyle hope to find community in their ailment, leading them to a group of audibly minded Hummers in search of clear answers. But it doesn’t take much for community to evolve into cult.

If nothing else, it’s a good platform for Rebecca Hall, one of the most interesting actresses working today. As seen in films like Resurrection, Christine, and The Night House, Hall is at her best when playing women who are barely holding it together and begin to descend into carnage as their patience is chipped away by a cruel world. As Claire, she tries to keep a cool head as the noise becomes overwhelming in her thoughts, but the stress of it (and of not being believed by the world) etches its way onto her face. When Kyle tells her he can also hear the hum, the way she exudes relief is controlled but palpable. Claire wants to retain her dignity, but the fear of being deemed crazy by her loved ones and medical professionals forces her to largely suffer alone. Her microexpressions of pain are invisible to most, but not Bravo’s close-ups which capture each twitch and sigh. TIFF didn’t screen every episode but by the end of the two we saw, it’s clear that her downward spiral is taking its toll.

It’s, fittingly, a languid series, which may prove tiresome for some viewers, but there’s something to be said for how Bravo immerses the viewer in Claire’s problem. The hum always seems to be there, sometimes blending into the background but forever present. Perfectly normal sounds like a vacuum cleaner or the buzz of nearby pylons become more irritating as the sound design engulfs you in Claire’s perspective. The mundane suburbs seem more stifling than cozy, with Claire’s situation adding a new layer of the sinister to her daily surroundings. Bravo makes the world seem just that little bit smaller once the hum takes over.

As we find ourselves living in noticeably conspiratorial times, The Listeners offers a glimpse into how nobody is immune to the allure of this mindset. Claire is smart, well-educated, kind, and equipped with a support circle of family, friends, and colleagues. Yet all it takes is one rather mild shift for her to descend into tinhat territory. She rants about 5G at one point, a popular conspiracy for every group of fantasist. She’s so desperate for answers, so infuriated by not being believed, that it only feels right for her to latch onto that which offers solace. Bravo presents Claire’s problem clearly and fairly without letting her or anyone else off the hook for the messes they cause, After all, any good conspiracy needs someone easy to blame.

While The Listeners will be a tough sell for many given its careful pace and grounded approach to what could have been more sci-fi based, Bravo and Hall’s work is worth your attention. Seldom is the road to conspiratorial hell portrayed as it truly is: a gentle slide into oblivion that anyone could take.

The Listeners had its world premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. It will be shown in the United Kingdom on BBC One later this year. It currently does not have a U.S. release date.