By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.375
Director: Sally Potter
Starring: Alessandro Nivola | Alice Englert | Annette Bening | Christina Hendricks | Elle Fanning | Jodhi May | Oliver Platt | Timothy Spall
Country: canada, croatia, denmark, united_kingdom
Year: 2013
Running time: 90
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2115295/combined
Thom says: “Here’s another atrocious film from the vastly overpraised Sally Potter, & I never seem able to learn my lesson. I did give her first film ORLANDO my highest rating, perhaps in retrospect more for the presence of the Divine Tilda Swinton & Virginia Woolf’s superb novel but I’ve seen every single film she’s made since then: THE TANGO LESSON, THE MAN WHO CRIED, YES, RAGE, & now this dreadful film all of which I gave 1 CAT to. I might well have passed on this even as a freebie from Chlotrudis had it not been for the participation of musts-see actors Annette Bening, Christina Hendricks, & Alessandro Nivola but I should have gone with my gut instinct and passed. This one is something about two inseparable teenage girls growing up in London in the 1960s during the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis and one of the girls’ obsession with the end of the world being imminent. Partly because the fear is way overworked, but mostly through pretentious, overwrought film-making this piece is dull and instantly forgettable. If Chlotrudis had a list of the worst coming-of-age films this would be near the top. I spent the entire film trying to come to grips with the American actors sporadic English accents. So much talent lost. How Potter ever was awarded an OBE by the Queen is beyond all understanding. 1 cat”
Michael says: “Funny. I saw this in Toronto last year and it was one of my favorites. I thought it was very well done, the acting was great, the period handled nicely. Annette Bening was like a secret weapon, and Alessandro Nivola was deliciously reprehensible. But the big surprise for me was Elle Fanning. She was 13 when she shot this film and she’s playing a 17 year old. I was very surprised to find that out!
“This one doesn’t open in the States until March. 4 cats”
Julie says: “Even though I tend to agree with Thomas I don’t think I would be so harsh as to give it a 1. I must say I have to think hard about the entire plot and I saw it fairly recently!
“I did like Annette Benning in this. She seemed the most believable of all the characters. The girls’ performances were not bad. yes maybe a little pretentious. I guess I didn’t like the story more than anything. Pretty messed up story… and it didn’t seem to be cohesive in the way I’d like a story to be. I found myself rewinding the very last scene to see if I had missed something profound. 3 cats”
Thom responds: “Annette Bening was great, if only she’d been in it more”
Jason says: “Sally Potter has spent her career making movies that ranged from the experimental to the eccentric and back again, but GINGER & ROSA is not one of them; it’s a coming-of-age story with settings and certain details reminiscent of her own formative years. Not exactly an uncommon thing, but it’s not always done this well, and certainly not always so blessed in terms of the performance by its young lead actress.
“The two title characters were born at the same moment during the final days of World War II – Ginger (Elle Fanning) to former painter Natalie (Christina Hendricks) and academic Roland (Alessandro Nivola); Rosa (Alice Englert) to working-class Anoushka (Jodhi May) and a man who leaves well before 1962, when the girls are sixteen or seventeen. Ginger is becoming quite aware and frightened of the possibility of nuclear annihilation even as her parents’ marriage is falling apart, while Rosa’s attention is mostly focused on boys, though she’ll be looking to move on to men soon enough.
“The Cold War era is maybe not uniquely suited to this sort of story – I’m sure that kids who reached their teens near the start of the millennium will have apt terrorism metaphors for their tortured adolescence. It can actually seem kind of quaint for the next generation, but in a way, that’s what makes paralleling that sort of real-world event work; the world does not actually end, although there’s no way for a teenager to know that. The potential for an apocalypse on a personal level, at least, is never in doubt.
“We can see this because Elle Fanning is rather terrific. Only thirteen when she took the role, she nevertheless manages a decent accent and the right balance of maturity and volatility; she’s especially great at trying to hold back obvious hurt because she doesn’t want to look immature or conventional in front of the adults who seem so proud of her intelligence. Alice Englert isn’t quite the co-star that the title would imply, but she echoes Fanning enough to give the characters’ friendship a basis beyond their shared birthdate, but has a groundedness that sets her apart. There’s a natural camaraderie between them during the movie’s somewhat aimless early sections that lays a foundation where the audience won’t really consider splitting them apart no matter what strife events create.
“The adult cast is impressive as well. Christina Hendricks’s accent is a bit questionable (or, at least, incongruous, as I don’t think she’s ever varied it much before), but she captures how this sort of mother can be overbearing and judgmental, but that’s in part because she’s had idealism and free-spiritedness buried. Obviously, a father like Roland seems appealing, and Alessandro Nivola is able to get across the charm that seems amazing to his students and younger girls, while also showing how his dedication to free thought can make him a sort of monster, and just as manipulative as those he decries. Timothy Spall shows up as Ginger’s godfather Mark, a friend of the family who serves as a stabilizing influence, whether through quiet support or forcefully laying the situation out for all to see. Oliver Platt and Annette Bening are almost gratuitous as American friends of Mark’s, well-meaning but incomplete role models.
“Sally Potter is not particularly subtle; she starts the movie with an atomic explosion, after all, and there’s no way to smoothly weave the radio news broadcasts that form the basis of Ginger’s external fears. There’s moments like Rosa very distinctly moving from next to a reading Ginger to making out with a boy, or how (from Ginger’s point of view) Natalie’s life suddenly seems cleaner and brighter at a certain point. She uses a lot of confined spaces, especially when the girls are encountering the adult world (wide-open ones when they’re on their own early on), and makes Ginger’s poetry that of a beginner but not pointedly bad. For all that she’s showing her hand as the movie goes on, the last act is especially impressive as it puts more and more weight onto Ginger until it becomes too much to bear, although as the inevitable collapse reaches a crescendo, it transforms, creating a somewhat surprising final sustained note.
“As it should; as vulnerable as teenagers can be, it’s their ability to grow stronger if given the chance that is perhaps their most important characteristic. Potter and company – especially Fanning – show that quite well; as much as GINGER & ROSA may seem familiar at the start, it builds and matures into something fairly special. 4 cats
‘Seen 17 March 2013 in Coolidge Corner Theatre #2 (Talk Cinema, Blu-ray)”
Chris says: “Although set in the same country and era as AN EDUCATION and similarly centered on a teenage girl, GINGER AND ROSA comparatively feels like it’s beaming in from another planet; chalk that up to director Sally Potter, who is best known for ORLANDO from twenty years ago but began her career making experimental films and more recently did a contemporary narrative feature with dialogue almost entirely in (ahem) iambic pentameter (called YES). Although her latest is by some distance her most accessible work, what could have been simply a straightforward narrative becomes more artful and a little idiosyncratic due to her instinctual approach.
“Ginger (Elle Fanning) and Rosa (Alice Englert) were born side by side at the end of World War II (in a rare tonal misstep, the opening scenes setting this up are too cute by half). Seventeen years later, we see them as best friends doing all the things BFFs in 1962 working class London would do: sharing cigarettes, ironing each other’s hair, shrinking their jeans by soaking them in a tub of cold water, etc; These early scenes are among the film’s best, their seemingly ephemeral nature actually going a long way in constructing a thoughtful, vivid portrait of the two girls. Both of them also come from broken homes (Rosa’s father walked out years before, Ginger’s parents’ marriage is slowly disintegrating), and that’s where the conflict enters in. Around the time Ginger’s dad (Alessandro Nivola, charmingly low key and a little rakish) moves out, she begins obsessing over threat of nuclear war brought on by the Cuban Missile Crisis. Meanwhile, Rosa also becomes obsessed (to a lesser degree) with finding love, and does so with probably the worst person imaginable.
“As the girls’ desperation increases, the film threatens to turn into an overwrought kitchen sink melodrama. Fortunately, Potter tempers this by avoiding kitsch, instead coloring the film with period jazz and lovely imagery that emits a nostalgic glow without fully shielding a fine layer of grime. Other scenes with Ginger and the bohemian adult friends she’s adopted as a surrogate family consisting of an older gay couple (Timothy Spall and Oliver Platt) and a fellow antiwar activist (a tart, wizened Annette Bening) are a treat thanks to the actors’ chemistry and their calm but wry demeanor. Overall, it’s an impressive ensemble; only Christina Hendricks as Ginger’s mom is less than memorable, shaky limey accent and all. Still, this is certainly Elle Fanning’s film (to the point where the fine Englert is a little overshadowed). Not only does she credibly play 17 (Fanning was only 14 during filming) and pull off the Brit accent, she’s complex and intense while also fully natural, knowing exactly when to underplay. At its conclusion, GINGER AND ROSA renders most of its shortcomings irrelevant with a risky, powerful scene that rests firmly on Fanning’s shoulders. 4.5 cats”