Zelly & Me

Small movies can sometimes yield large pleasures, but to appreciate this modest, independently produced drama you'll have to first forgive a lot of its shortcomings. The film is more well-meant than well-made, following the battle of wills between a dictatorial grandmother and a benevolent French governess over the welfare of a precocious, orphaned poor-little-rich-girl. But it's an unfair competition from the start: Grandma Coco can only express her affection for young Phoebe through jealous tantrums and cruel discipline, while governess Zelly (short for Mademoiselle) is all compassion and tenderness (and very little else).

The film is a peculiar mixture of lukewarm nostalgia and cold, upper-crust alienation, showing more forbearance than might otherwise be expected from a story about child abuse. But the meager budget isn't enough to convincingly recreate the (somewhat arbitrary) 1958 setting, effectively isolating the action in a dramatic vacuum. A little more background detail might have made it more involving.

Look for cult director David Lynch in a small role, alongside his then girlfriend Isabella Rossellini.

The director did understood the work of heart. She brought both good and bad sides of human beings to the screen and show us how to live strongly in this world. Isbella Rossellini did her great job of being the best nanny ever. She made us believe in love and mercy that we almost think they were lost on the way to the modern world. I also fell in love with the girl in the story. She reminded me of the day when I was young.

I watched this movie in 1990 and I was just 14 years old but through the years this movie enters my mind. I tried to find it once before but couldn't find it. I'm curious to see it now that I am older. It was always a sad movie to me.

It's 1958 Virginia. Phoebe is a young orphan with a Joan d'Arc obsession. She lives with her wealthy grandmother Co-Co (Glynis Johns), nanny Zelly (Isabella Rossellini), maid Nora, and Earl the gardener. Willie (David Lynch) inherited the large gated mansion nearby. Co-Co is raising Phoebe with coercive methods. Zelly is horrified by her training like a dog and Co-Co's intention to break her of her willfulness.

I can't believe that this is what Rossellini and Lynch did together after Blue Velvet. I did wonder what if Lynch did the directing. At least, he likes writer/director Tina Rathborne enough to have her direct a couple of Twin Peaks episodes later. She seems to have faded from the scene after that. With this movie, she struggles to set up this world at first. It has to do with the grandmotherly Glynis Johns. Until the first incident, I didn't realize that she is a strict disciplinarian. That needs to be more absolute and the home needs to be more oppressive from the very beginning. I do feel for the little girl's struggles and her head-spinning turns. She doesn't know whether she's coming or going. It's the last part where this movie excels. I do wish for a final wedding scene. I was waiting for an elderly Rossellini to walk in and close out the film.

Zelly and Me is a very good movie about a little girl's relationship with her grandmother. Isabella Rossellini is wonderful as usual as the girl's nanny, Zelly. David Lynch also is excellent as Willie, Zelly's boyfriend. With the relationships between the four main characters, the movie manages to intelligently portray real motivations in why people act the way they do when it might seem more logical to act in some other way. Zelly and Me is at times touching, but not overly sentimental. Everyone in the cast gives convincing, realistic performances.