REVIEWS
What Maisie Knew Reviewed by Tim Grierson
A heartbreakingly perceptive illustration of the axiom that when parents get divorced, the ones most affected are the children, What Maisie Knew is a closely observed and deeply emotional drama in which a kind-hearted six-year-old girl only slowly begins to understand the complexity of her mother and father’s dysfunctional relationship. Guided by a superb cast — and a strong turn from newcomer Onata Aprile — the latest from directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel (The Deep End, Bee Season) wrings tears but does so with a great deal of tenderness and intelligence. What Maisie Knew should not have much problem finding
Ginger & Rosa Reviewed byAllan Hunter
Ginger & Rosa is Sally Potter’s most approachable film in a very long while. It offers a fond, freewheeling remembrance of an intense female friendship challenged by the threat of nuclear annihilation and the giddy promise of liberation at the dawn of the Swinging Sixties. Winning performances and a stylish evocation of the period carry the film through a beguiling first hour before it runs out of steam. The more banal plot elements and overwrought emotions
that dominate in the later stages significantly dilute its impact. The film should still find a ready welcome among nostalgic older viewers and those drawn to classy UK com- ing-of-age dramas. Potter opens the film with scenes from the nuclear devas-
tation of Hiroshima in 1945. It is the year in which Ginger and Rosa are born and by the time of the Cuban Missile Cri- sis in 1962 they have never known a world without the pos- sibility of extinction. Ginger (Fanning) wants to be a poet and is drawn to activism and the CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) while Rosa (Englert) seems more interested in boys than bombs. They are still inseparable and the film captures that rush
of exhilaration as they experience a growing sense of their sexuality and a world that is theirs for the taking. There are echoes of the nouvelle vague in a swirl of images that cap- ture snapshots of days at the beach, huddled in coffee bars and smooching conquests in back alleys that might have been lit for a Wong Kar Wai film. Cinematographer Robbie Ryan favours intense close-ups
and handheld swoops to convey these free spirits. As Ginger grows increasingly disturbed by events on the global stage, there are equally alarming developments on the home front as her father Roland (Nivola) leaves her mother Natalie (Hendricks) and pursues his attraction to Rosa. The film seems particularly acute in recognising the
changes heralded by the ’60s as the certainties of church and marriage crumbled and the authority of parents became something to be challenged. Ginger has moments of despis- ing her mother for being a mere homemaker and idolising a father who has had the luxury of being irresponsible. Dis- covering his feet of clay plants a seed that might encourage Ginger to see the world differently. A strong cast includes a number of performers slightly
hampered by the stilted English accents they adopt, but there are delightful scenes with Timothy Spall and Oliver Platt as Ginger’s affectionate gay godfathers Mark and Mark 2 and Annette Bening as their activist friend Bella. Alice Englert is shortchanged by the underdeveloped role of Rosa, but Elle Fanning makes an appealing Ginger, raw with emo- tion, easily hurt and filled with vulnerability.
n 10 Screen International at Toronto September 9, 2012
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
UK. 2012. 89mins Director/screenplay Sally Potter Production companies Adventure Pictures, Miso Film International sales The Match Factory, www.
the-match-factory.com Producers Christopher Sheppard,AndrewLitvin Executive producers RenoAntoniades,AaronL Gilbert, Goetz Grossmann, HeidiLevitt, Joe Oppenheimer, Paula Alvarez Vaccaro Cinematography Robbie Ryan Production designer Carlos Conti EditorAnders Refn Main cast Elle Fanning, Alice Englert,Alessandro Nivola,Annette Bening, Timothy Spall, Christina Hendricks, Oliver Platt
a distributor, thanks in part to its stars (including Julianne Moore), though strong reviews should also benefit the cause. This drama ought to cater to adult audiences who will appreciate the film’s smartly handled examination of divorce and a young child’s reluctant coming-of-age. Working from a screenplay by Nancy Doyne and Carroll
Cartwright that is based on the Henry James novel, the film introduces us to Maisie (Aprile), a sweet-tempered girl whose parents — rock singer Susanna (Moore) and art dealer Beale (Coogan) — are about to split up. Quickly, the custody battle over Maisie becomes contentious, and the rancour only escalates when Beale marries their former nanny (Vanderham) and Susanna, in retaliation, ties the knot with a dashing young bartender (Skarsgard). Maisie’s loving nature is tested by the emotional warfare
going on between her estranged parents, but at the same time it is nurtured by their new partners, who are sympa- thetic to the girl’s delicate position in the middle of all this bickering. The film works in subtle ways to examine how Maisie rec-
onciles her parents’ fractious relationship — she is old enough to pick up on their animosity but still too young to fully understand what is going on. McGehee and Siegel have elicited a deftly understated performance from Aprile, and the newcomer is wondrous at hinting at Maisie’s quiet thought process as new adults come into her life, all of them wanting to help her through this difficult transition. All four adult actors have been given layered characters to
play, and it is to the film-makers’ credit that none of them are easy to peg — at different times in the film, we like or dislike each of them, even though their reasons are easily under- standable. Susanna is a prototypical Julianne Moore creation, the sort of iron-willed but also badly damaged woman who, in lesser hands, could be shrill but is instead worthy of empathy, despite her bottomless self-centredness. But Beale is her equal in this regard, and Steve Coogan makes good use of his oily charm to portray a man who Maisie cannot help but love.
GALA
US. 2012. 93mins Directors Scott McGehee, David Siegel Production companies Red Crown, Charles Weinstock/William Teitler, 120dB Films, Koda Entertainment, Dreambridge Films International sales Fortissimo Films, www.
fortissimo.nl US sales WME, www.
wmeentertainment.com Producers William Teitler, Charles Weinstock, Daniela TaplinLundberg, Daniel Crown Executive producers Todd JLabarowski, Stephen Hays,Anne O’Shea, Peter Fruchtman, Jennifer Roth, Marissa McMahon, Riva Marker, Eva Maria Daniels Screenplay Nancy Doyne, Carroll Cartwright, based on the novel by Henry James Cinematography Giles Nuttgens Editor Madeleine Gavin Production designer Kelly McGehee Music Nick Urata Main cast Julianne Moore, Alexander Skarsgard, Steve Coogan, Joanna Vanderham, OnataAprile
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