Frances Ha is a mess. The rather charming thing is that she is the only one who doesn’t see that. She’s a 27 year awkward and gangly young woman living in New York whose headset has never moved on from being a college student. She sails through her disparate life without a steady job, or an apartment or a boyfriend. She is inseparable from her best friend Sophie and the two do simply everything together so much so that Frances claims that they are ‘just like an old lesbian couple who never have sex’ , except of course they are both straight. Frances has never progressed from being an apprentice at the Modern Dance Group that she belongs too, but she never gives up hope that she will succeed even when the Principal gently fires her. In fact as everyone around her moves on with their lives and their loves, Frances’s world seems to shrink, even though her energy and enthusiasm never does.
With such a totally captivating performance by Greta Gerwig (who co-wrote the script with her director/boyfriend Noah Baumbach), its so hard not to really like Frances, no matter how annoying she appears at times. She convincingly persuades us that her naivety is very real, and even a reluctant sceptic like me comes to accept that her disorganized childlike approach to everything is more than acceptable, and is actually quite delightful.
Even when the chips against her are stacked very high, Frances won’t sell out, and rather than accept a consolation clerical job at the Dance Company, she takes herself off to Vassar, her Alma mater, to work as an Assistant at Summer School even though all her colleagues are teenagers. And there she bumps into a very unhappy and drunk Sophie visiting from Japan, and the two confront each other and fess up to being disappointed with how their lives have turned out without each other.
Without risking a spoiler, I will say that there is a sweet and happy ending. And less I have imbued my description with too much angst, I should say Frances’s free spirit madcap dancing her way through the streets of Manhattan makes it a very joyous and warm piece. Shot in black & white which for some inexplicable reason seems oddly appropriate, this is very definitely Noah Baumbach finally back on the form he had when he made ‘The Squid and Whale’. I never ever thought I would want to sit through another thing he directed after I so completely loathed with a real passion both of his last two movies, ‘Margot At The Wedding’ and ‘Greenberg’. But credit where it is due, this one was a real treat and so long may he date/work with Miss Gerwig.
★★★★★★★★
