“Sanctuary”, which is currently available on Netflix in South Korea, is a kinky two-hander which cheerfully goes up and down along with its two main characters. As these two figures pull or push each other within its limited main background, the movie doles out a serious of nasty but humorous moments to be appreciated and savored, and it is also supported well by the dynamic chemistry between the two talented lead performers at its center.

The movie opens with a young woman named Rebecca Martin (Margaret Qualley) arriving at a big and posh hotel room where a lad named Hal Porterfield (Christopher Abbott) is waiting for her. At first, Rebecca seems to be there for interviewing Hal for some business matter involveld with Hal’s very rich businessman father who recently passed away, and he looks willing to answer to any question from her, but we slowly start to sense something odd about the supposedly formal interactions between them.

If you already saw the trailer of the film, you surely know the real purpose of Rebecca’s visit. Rebecca is actually a professional dominatrix hired by Hal, and she is certainly ready to corner and then punish Hal as much as he desires, though he does not seem to know that well about how much he exactly wants to be punished for his kinky pleasure. He planned every detail of their foreplay in advance, but he seems rather confused and hesitant while Rebecca looks quite prepared for their little private fun and games.

What follows next is a series of psychological S&M plays, and we also get to know a bit more about Rebecca and Hal. Because he is going to be the CEO of his father’s big company, Hal decides to end his clandestine relationship with Rebecca after having one last fun with her, so he shows her more appreciation along with a considerable extra payment after his desire is fulfilled as usual, but Rebecca does not look so eager to end their relationship. Probably because getting accustomed a lot to dominating over him, she is not that willing to release him from her psychological control, and that naturally leads to another kinky (and twisty) play between her and Hal.

Surely knowing well how to push buttons on her client, Rebecca alternatively taunts and torments Hal in one way or another, and we come to wonder more about her true motives. At one point, she seems to be seriously blackmailing him with something which may irrevocably destroy his public image, but then she looks like simply messing with him for another fun and thrill between them. While often letting himself pushed or cornered by her in one way or another, Hal seems really exasperated and frustrated, and he even comes to make a threat on her life later in the story, but then Rebecca sharply reminds him of who the boss really is in their increasingly morbid circumstance.

Although mostly stuck inside its small main background along with its two main characters, the movie never feels stiff or bland under the competent direction of director Zachary Wigon, who previously made a feature film debut with “The Heart Machine” (2014). As cinematographer Ludovica Isidori’s camera dexterously moves around the two main characters at times, the editing by Kate Brokaw and Lance Edmands efficiently establishes the edgy tone of the movie along with the score by Ariel Max, and we come to pay more attention to every detail of the interactions between Rebecca and Hal as wondering what may happen next between them.

In the end, the movie works as a viciously amusing chamber comedy which will remind you of many other similar films ranging from “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” (1966) to “Carnage” (2011). As Rebecca pushes her client more and more along the story, Hal comes to show what a pathetic guy he really is, and Rebecca also seems a bit honest about whatever she is actually feeling about her client, though you can be never sure about whether she is just dangling a carrot in front of him before wielding a whip as before.

The effectiveness of the film depends a lot on the talent and presence of its two lead performers, who surely show considerable commitment in pushing their characters to the extreme. Margaret Qualley, who is incidentally one of the daughters of Andie MacDowell, demonstrates again here that she is an interesting new actress to watch, and it is really fun and exciting to watch her going all the way for her character’s many deliciously naughty moments in the movie. On the opposite, Christopher Abbott, who recently appeared in Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things” (2023) with Qualley, ably supports his co-star’s showier acting, and I enjoyed how he conveys his character’s pitiful vulnerabilities as steadily maintaining some ambiguity. Clicking together well whenever things get pretty nasty between their characters, Abbott and Qualley constantly generate an ample amount of humor and tension, and they never make any misstep even when every hidden card of their characters is almost unfolded in front of us around the end of the film.

Overall, “Sanctuary” is a modest but entertaining genre piece driven well by its competent direction as well as its two skillful lead performances, and it is certainly recommendable if, like me, you have admired how Qualley and Abbott have advanced in their respective acting careers during last several years. So far, both of them have seldom disappointed me, and I sincerely hope that they will impress us more in each own way in the future.