Ginger & Rosa

A film about growing up in the turbulent early 60's, Sally Potter gets everything pretty much right. You can smell, feel and touch England in the 60's. The characterisation is excellent, from the self-indulgent and irresponsible adults who provide poor role-models to the young girls who collectively endure a myriad of emotions and motivations as they engage with a changing and insecure world.

While the film is occasionally one-paced, it is held together by the stunning performances of the two female leads. While Alice Englert is excellent as the more wilful member of the duo, Elle Fanning is simply amazing. I recall her "acting" scene from 'Super 8' which first alerted me to her talent, and this is a 90 minute performance of staggering integrity , credibility and skill. I have seen and appreciated many child or young actors in my time and wondered at their naturalness in front of a camera and how the director has got such quality performances from them but this beats all. How a 13/14 year old (playing a 16 year-old)can be this good an actor beats me. I only hope that away from the camera she grows up supported and protected or, in other words, that this is the beginning of a very brilliant career.

It's 1962 London. Ginger (Elle Fanning) gets fixated on the Cuban Missile Crisis, and is inseparable from her best friend Rosa (Alice Englert). She has a dysfunctional family. Her mother (Christina Hendricks) is disconnected from her daughter. And his father Roland (Alessandro Nivola) is completely disconnected with societal norms.

Writer/director Sally Potter is using a minimalist approach to filmmaking. It is quite slow early on. It's actually tough to see the lack of connection and the naive talk. Elle Fanning is very compelling as the lost little girl. I do wish that the film could get going much faster. Once it gets going. Elle gives the best performance I've seen her done as an older performer.

Every character is lost here. The fact that they're so adamant of their righteousness just elevates the frustration. The only person with a clue is the doctor at the jail. The family break down in the end is disturbing.

A small movie for perhaps an even smaller audience, Ginger & Rosa is a coming-of-age/sexual awakening tale of two close girlfriends growing up in London in 1962 at the height of the frantic and worrisome Cuban Missile Crisis.

Ginger (an exceptional Elle Fanning) has found her life turned upside down when her squabbling parents – the put-upon, under-appreciated, one-time artist mother (Mad Men's Christina Hendricks) and the esteemed, bohemian, philandering professor father (Alessandro Nivola) – decide to separate and her closest friend Rosa (Alice Englert) could care less as she is more interested in wearing eye shadow and nail polish to impress the random teenage boy.

To become more active and to distract herself from her own life's unraveling situation (thanks, Rosa!), Ginger takes on the cause of nuclear disarmament after being swayed by the conversations of her mother's political activist friends (O. Platt, T. Spall and A. Bening). No matter the bigger obstacles Ginger takes upon herself, the various actions of her family and friends are what ultimately threaten the young girl and her well-being.

Ginger & Rosa is a decent film that will not appeal to a mass audience. It is a slow-moving character-study of the film's strongest character, Ginger. Luckily Rosa -- a character who is very hard to like from the get-go (selfish) -- isn't really featured enough to merit her name in the title. Some will see the film as ponderous as the young Ginger strives to find reason and purpose; but she is a realistic character and Fanning is subtle in some scenes and fantastic in others. (THIS is the more-talented Fanning sister and I have felt this way since Somewhere).

I tried to explain the "feel" of the film to a friend the other day and I said it was much like placing a pot of water on the stove for it to boil. It is a pot of water sitting on a stove (exciting!) ... just sitting there as it simmers while we get a bubble here and a bubble there! When it finally hits the boiling point -- watch out! -- because it could boil over!

GINGER & ROSA is a quiet, relatively uneventful coming-of-age tale about two British girls growing up during the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Those who want a conventional storyline with plenty of fast action will, understandably, find it rather dull: GINGER & ROSA is driven almost entirely by character, themes, and dialogue. Yet, there is an indescribable magic to this film. After a slow, uncertain start, GINGER & ROSA slowly hypnotizes its audience with very real characters and multiple issues. The "big" global issue of the "the Bomb" is juxtaposed very well with the "smaller" interrelationships between the characters.

Ginger, the protagonist, is an aspiring poet, and the film itself is structured a bit like a poem. It addresses the complexities of growing up, inseparable friendship, the pain that comes when something disrupts it, and many other things. As one who's battled with depression on and off for most of his life, I found GINGER & ROSA very illuminating about the nature of despair, melancholy, and all of that.

While intrigued, I still wondered for most of the first 80 or so minutes, "Where is all this supposed to be going?" Nothing terribly dramatic ever happens, but, like a good poem, the fine ending and resolution made me glad I'd stayed with it.

At the time of writing this review, Ginger and Rosa has a 4.8 rating!! I don't know who these voters are, but this is a very fine film: insightful, funny, and wise. The acting is across the board phenomenal. Cast spoke of long rehearsal period during Q&A and it shows. Every shot captures real life in all its expressive complexity. Elle Fanning, 13 playing 16, gives one of the greatest child performances I have ever seen - truly astonishing as well as touching, funny/sad, and beautiful. Great script, gorgeous cinematography and design, perfectly chosen period music. This is a must-see, and sure to be a break-out role for Fanning.