| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| BaftaBaby |
Posted - 12/28/2012 : 11:51:18
Lauded writer/director Sally Potter's tale of 1960s London is told from a much under-represented leftie/artsy point of view, seen through the eyes of two proto-feminist, bff teens.
Though she, herself, missed the salient points on the timeline by a few years, Potter's crafted an exquisite looking, beautifully paced film, and peopled it [apart from one] with some excellent performances from both leads and supports.
Where the whole fails to meld, however, is the tricky balance between personal stories and the Zeitgeist of change that has shaped everything that's come since.
Those 60s social rebels who've survived to inhabit today's cultural mainstream have lost little of their analysis of middle-of-the-road bullshit. That all seems easy today, but was hard fought for - if not exactly won. After all, pitted against the powers of armored market forces, ideals appear under-clothed and fragile.
In Potter's depiction of the two main families, the choices are too easy. Presumably she wants to elucidate something about why things are the way they are and how they got here.
But in polarizing the development of the two young women, with some added spice of betrayal, the wider socio-political developments are reduced to background noise.
Music has always underpinned Potter's work, and in that regard the soundtrack of early 1950-60s jazz classics reflects the view from the banks of the mainstream.
So, in the end, I remain unclear about why the story should be told except perhaps to fill in some gaps. But holes remain.
Maybe I'm being unfair, but I did live through those years, and in a similar social milieu. And maybe I was hoping for a different kind of accuracy, and to be told something a bit surprising.
The eponymous girls are played by a sensational Elle Fanning and darker in more-senses-than-one Alice Englert. Their respective families, each troubled in its own way, provide somewhat confusing cushions for the rites of passage that await.
Fanning perfectly captures the transition from an intelligent optimistic giggle girl into someone looking for life-food to feed her newly discovered soul.
Englert, daughter of director Jane Campion, focuses on the physical, strutting like a junior Nigella Lawson and experimenting with the power of attraction.
The one glaring let-down of the cast is Ginger's mum, Nat. When the script requires her finally to explode from years of self-imposed repression, her tirades are strained and false.
Happily everyone else oozes truth.
So, see it for some of the questions the film hints at, and see if you can emerge with better ones.
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