We live in a world where the system creates people designed to move quick and work even faster, where it is essential to labor diligently. However, every once in a while, when you take a break from your usual day and observe the little things around you, you feel and connect differently with the world. Director Naomi Jay’s Darkest Miriam, adapted from a Martha Baillie novel, feels like a sad love letter to people who dream of feeling more human but don’t get to. A story of a librarian, her eccentric daily life, and a bizarre group of people she encounters in the library. However, her gloomy and routine-ish life takes a turn when she falls in love and starts receiving threatening letters from an unknown person.
Spoilers Ahead
What happens in the movie?
Working in a public library can seem a tad boring, but Miriam, who we are rooting for here, seems pretty content with it. Miriam deals with very different challenges than you and I, like dealing with patrons, people leaving their semen under books, confiscating unclaimed dentures, you name it. Miriam usually tries to deal with the problems, and she files incident reports, which she fills with pretty in-depth information about the incidents. More often than not, she writes “none” in the column of action taken. She also remembers her father and recalls fragments of memories about a man who had a book collection; his usual habitat was among the books. Miriam’s unusually specific routine also includes teaching kids and sitting at the information desk of the library. She narrates the list of people that frequently visit the library. The list includes Tom, a former classical pianist; John B., an old man who has dementia; and an unusually pale female patron, who often bickers with people, among others. You somewhat start drowning in the life of this librarian, but a letter she finds changes things a little. Miriam finds a letter inside an Italian opera book, where someone pretends to be Rigoletto and issues a warning of what they’re capable of. Just for context, Rigoletto is an Italian opera written by Francesco Maria Piave in 1851. The character of Rigoletto is the Duke’s hunchbacked jester who helps him seduce the daughter of a count. When Miriam finds the first letter, she doesn’t know what to make of it, and through the next few letters, we see Miriam’s life changing in a way even she couldn’t have expected.
How does Miriam fall in love?
Every day, Miriam goes to a park bench to have her lunch. Just across from her bench, she notices a pale, shy man, and they raise their apples to each other. Soon they start hanging out on the same bench, and she finally finds someone she’s romantically interested in. The man is Janko, a Slovenian cab driver who’s also a painter. Their first real conversation is about the books they’re reading. Miriam has the Italian opera book she found the threatening letter in, and Janko is reading Kekec, a Slovenian novel for children. Miriam and Janko are both somewhat quirky; you can say that’s the reason they connected with each other in the first place. When Miriam visits his apartment for the first time, she asks to see his art. Janko studied fresco restoration, and we see his paintings look like a mix of abstract texture art and material-based abstraction. I don’t want to comment on how visually appealing the paintings might be, just like Miriam didn’t. Miriam tells Janko that she has to leave, but soon she starts taking her clothes off, and I don’t need to lay out what happened next. She quietly leaves after doing the deed and lies down in the same construction hole she fell into a few days back. Miriam is content even when we don’t know what’s going on in her mind.
Why did Janko name her the Darkest Miriam?
When Janko reaches a stage where he’s comfortable asking questions of Miriam, he asks her to read to him. Miriam reads a pretty depressing poem, not at all what someone should read for their partners in the early stages of dating. Jokes aside, the beauty of their relationship lies in the dark and complex nature of it. Whenever Janko asked Miriam about herself and her past life, Miriam would tend to shift the conversation to something else. Janko is an artist whose paintings are all black, so in a way, he resonated with Miriam’s darkness. Miriam’s darkness isn’t remotely evil but that of an individual who’s constantly struggling internally. Janko gives the nickname ‘Darkest Miriam’ to her, somewhat in appreciation of their relationship.
Were the letters real?
Miriam receives a second letter soon, where she’s asked if she knows anything about suffering. Now, we know the letters exist and are not imaginary since she takes this one to her boss and a police officer. The third letter takes it up a notch, where the person addresses Miriam as “Oh, my daughter of the freckled hands.” You get the sense from the movie that the sender might not be a man but a woman. The letter addresses Janko as a vile scoundrel who dared to touch Miriam’s breasts and warns Miriam that soon their hands will be bathed in her lover’s blood.
Miriam and Janko, an unfulfilled romance
Janko always emphasized the fact that he wanted to know Miriam better. Miriam goes through an emotional roller coaster before finally being able to open up to her boyfriend. She tells Janko about her mad father, who was a book collector and filled his garage with books while her car would be parked in the driveway, no matter the weather. Miriam’s father would mostly be found in the garage, and he believed his collection would become immensely valuable even though he gave all of it away at some point in his life. In another time, Miriam doesn’t find Janko at their usual park spot, and she is terrified she’ll never see him again. When Janko sees her the next day, he reassures her that he won’t abandon her and that she’ll always find herself standing in tall grass, which basically refers to him. The couple only grow closer and closer, from eating together on the bed to going on walks together. But everything changes when a police officer comes knocking on Janko’s door one night and informs Miriam that he’s been killed in a robbery gone wrong.
Why does the film not reveal who pens the letters?
Darkest Miriam’s ending doesn’t reveal the identity of the author of the letters, and the identity of Rigoletto remains anonymous. The only thing we can understand from these letters is that they’re often referencing various portions from Verdi’s original opera. Miriam mentions that her father introduced her to Rigoletto when she was young, and the letters do seem to be coming from someone who has paternal instincts for Miriam. The author is protective, jealous, and doesn’t want Miriam to be harmed in any way. In the original story, Rigoletto finds his dying daughter. In the movie, it’s the father who has passed, leaving a load of unresolved emotional mess on his daughter. After losing Janko, we see Miriam cutting sourdough, answering the police, and eventually leaving her job at the library to move on to something new. Miriam has grown as an individual through these letters, her memories with her father, and loving Janko. Miriam’s emotional journey rightfully ends with her inner voice saying, ‘Weep, child, weep.’ By not revealing the identity of the author of these letters, the makers only urge the audience to look at the psychological impact these letters had on Miriam and how she grows through all of this.
