Upon first glance, it would seem that these two young ladies are happily in love. They are Frances (Greta Gerwig) and Sophie (Mickey Sumner), running around and playing in the New York jungle featured so beautifully in black and white, in Noah Baumbach's "Frances Ha." It might take a while, but it becomes more evident that they are not a couple, but instead two young women in love with each other only in the platonic sense. This is a story about friendship, and it's off to a nice start--the black and white, the energy, Bowie's "Modern Love" sprinkled about. But it quickly realizes that it doesn't have much else to offer.
Maybe it's in black and white because it knows there's not much else there. Frances asks Sophie early in the film to tell her "the story of us." That's essentially what this movie is--the story of two friends and "the story of them." Think of all the fine films there have been on such a profound topic--"Ferris Bueller's Day Off," "Stand by Me," "Au revoir les enfants," "Bridesmaids"--and compare them to this. How disappointing.
Frances is a character who always "feels bad," constantly apologizing for the most minuscule things. With Sophie, she has an intimate soul mate, one who shares her enormous aspirations--they even want honorary degrees. Frances is a dancer, but she struggles to find work even within the company she dances with. She's an old-fashioned individual, one who watches French movies, reads on the subway, and shuns modern obsessions with phones. This movie is so Woody Allen-esque but misuses the inspiration. At one point, she arbitrarily goes to France to...show us how quirky she is? To really show us that she makes poor choices? I don't know. All she does there is go to the cinema to watch "Puss in Boots," probably because the writers thought we would laugh if we heard the word "puss." It's a bit dangerous to make a movie about New York and Paris in black and white; whereas Woody Allen gave us a hopeless romantic roaming the streets in a pleasant time-travelling adventure through Paris, Baumbach has given us a woman watching a "Shrek" spin-off.
Frances' lack of success and unique personality continue. She finds herself in debt from her trip to France and doesn't find much opportunity in her dance company. She awkwardly makes her way through dinner conversations, in ulcer-inducing moments in this movie that dreadfully fall flat. What exactly is this movie trying to show us through this character? My only conclusion is how annoyed I was, and particularly at the words "I'm sorry." I don't think I've ever heard it so many times in one movie.
There aren't many other things to make up for it. Adam Driver might be a hit on HBO's "Girls," but his film performances have been mediocre or forgettable at best, and he was particularly annoying in the recent "What If." (Let's hope he'll be better in Martin Scorsese's "Silence" and J.J. Abram's "Star Wars: The Force Awakens.") Here, he's not much better. He does offer a humorous line at one point, teasing Frances that he was "pretending to be a liberated woman" in refusing to sleep with her. He plays Levi, one of the artists she moves in with. Another is Dan, played by Michael Esper, who continually says "un-dateable," thereby offering more examples of the awkwardness of the film's screenplay, written by both Gerwig and Baumbach. Such repetition and bad dialogue is the stuff of weak plays. The dialogue is pretty atrocious, particularly that given to Esper. His character claims to be writing a screenplay for "Gremlins 3." Why? Who cares. The so-called dialogue was probably improvised, as if, the filmmakers thought, to give it more legitimacy. So hip. At one point, we are told that "the only people who can afford to be artists are rich." That's deep.
So this "quirky" comedy is actually rather painful, the kind that folks will tell you you're supposed to like, and you must have inferior taste if you don't. It tries too hard to be clever and humorous and fails at both. Greta Gerwig is a remarkably talented actress who simply has chosen a bad role and given a sub-par performance. As the co-writer of this film, she deserves extra criticism. But I'm confident she'll be better next time.
Maybe it's in black and white because it knows there's not much else there. Frances asks Sophie early in the film to tell her "the story of us." That's essentially what this movie is--the story of two friends and "the story of them." Think of all the fine films there have been on such a profound topic--"Ferris Bueller's Day Off," "Stand by Me," "Au revoir les enfants," "Bridesmaids"--and compare them to this. How disappointing.
Frances is a character who always "feels bad," constantly apologizing for the most minuscule things. With Sophie, she has an intimate soul mate, one who shares her enormous aspirations--they even want honorary degrees. Frances is a dancer, but she struggles to find work even within the company she dances with. She's an old-fashioned individual, one who watches French movies, reads on the subway, and shuns modern obsessions with phones. This movie is so Woody Allen-esque but misuses the inspiration. At one point, she arbitrarily goes to France to...show us how quirky she is? To really show us that she makes poor choices? I don't know. All she does there is go to the cinema to watch "Puss in Boots," probably because the writers thought we would laugh if we heard the word "puss." It's a bit dangerous to make a movie about New York and Paris in black and white; whereas Woody Allen gave us a hopeless romantic roaming the streets in a pleasant time-travelling adventure through Paris, Baumbach has given us a woman watching a "Shrek" spin-off.
Frances' lack of success and unique personality continue. She finds herself in debt from her trip to France and doesn't find much opportunity in her dance company. She awkwardly makes her way through dinner conversations, in ulcer-inducing moments in this movie that dreadfully fall flat. What exactly is this movie trying to show us through this character? My only conclusion is how annoyed I was, and particularly at the words "I'm sorry." I don't think I've ever heard it so many times in one movie.
There aren't many other things to make up for it. Adam Driver might be a hit on HBO's "Girls," but his film performances have been mediocre or forgettable at best, and he was particularly annoying in the recent "What If." (Let's hope he'll be better in Martin Scorsese's "Silence" and J.J. Abram's "Star Wars: The Force Awakens.") Here, he's not much better. He does offer a humorous line at one point, teasing Frances that he was "pretending to be a liberated woman" in refusing to sleep with her. He plays Levi, one of the artists she moves in with. Another is Dan, played by Michael Esper, who continually says "un-dateable," thereby offering more examples of the awkwardness of the film's screenplay, written by both Gerwig and Baumbach. Such repetition and bad dialogue is the stuff of weak plays. The dialogue is pretty atrocious, particularly that given to Esper. His character claims to be writing a screenplay for "Gremlins 3." Why? Who cares. The so-called dialogue was probably improvised, as if, the filmmakers thought, to give it more legitimacy. So hip. At one point, we are told that "the only people who can afford to be artists are rich." That's deep.
So this "quirky" comedy is actually rather painful, the kind that folks will tell you you're supposed to like, and you must have inferior taste if you don't. It tries too hard to be clever and humorous and fails at both. Greta Gerwig is a remarkably talented actress who simply has chosen a bad role and given a sub-par performance. As the co-writer of this film, she deserves extra criticism. But I'm confident she'll be better next time.
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