Director Noah Baumbach is the king of movies about adults who can't or won't grow up. From the over-educated, under-motivated group of college friends in Kicking and Screaming to Jeff Daniels' pompous ass of a professor in The Squid and the Whale to Ben Stiller's caustic turn as an immature misanthrope in Greenberg, Baumbach has sharp ear and eye for man-children who think they're better than everyone else even though they can barely feed themselves or make polite conversation.
In his latest project, Frances Ha, Baumbach turns his attention to a women-child this time. However, he seems to have more sympathy for a female Peter Pan than the male ones who typically inhabit his movies. Greta Gerwig's turn as the titular Frances is all at once irritating, embarrassingly awkward, sympathetic, and charming. Frances is 27 (my age!) and is trying to break into a dance company in New York City even though she's not very good at her craft. But she loves life and she loves her best friend, Sophie (Mickey Sumner, daughter of Sting), whom she lives with, spends entire days with, and even sleeps in the same bed with. Sophie and Frances have a true romance between them that one would think nothing could tear asunder.
That is, until Sophie moves out and starts dating "Patch". Frances is understandably chagrined. Sophie is paving her way towards adulthood while Frances is homeless, boyfriendless, and on the verge of being jobless. Worst of all, she's in denial about her situation and seems unable to make any changes. So she passive-aggressively lashes out at Sophie, mocking Patch and criticizing Sophie's choices. The world is about to get a whole lot darker for Frances before she sees a light at the end of the tunnel.
But despite Frances' awkward ways (a scene of her dominating the conversation with petty anecdotes and unfunny jokes at a dinner party with older, chicer friends is absolutely excruciating), we can't help but feel affection for Frances, who often acts like a character on the TV show Girls, but a few years older. Her love for Sophie is so pure and so relatable, that it's very understandable that she feels the world spinning out of control as Sophie and Patch get more serious about each other. And to be fair, Sophie does start ignoring Frances in favor of newer, shinier friends.
But what really redeems Frances in comparison to Baumbach's previous parade of man-children is that she really doesn't think she's better than anyone else. She isn't self-loathing either. She's just un-self-aware, which can be both cute and annoying. But she's not a mean person and she's not arrogant or entitled. Frances is happy with the simple things in life: dancing, cookies, and friendship.
Frances' predicament gets almost hilariously bleak near the end of the movie, but she also gets a couple well-deserved breaks. As in Baumbach's other films, Frances Ha ends on a note of redemption and hope. Perhaps more hope than his previous films. It's a *little* too tied up in a nice bow for my tastes, but it also feels real and sweet. Frances doesn't get everything she wants, but you know that she is slowly making her way to adulthood...if a bit more slowly than her friends.
Frances Ha is a movie that reminds us of that old adage: growing older is required, growing up is optional. And as Frances runs through the streets to David Bowie's "Modern Love", it reminds us that sometimes it's ok to be a little young at heart.
4 out of 5 stars
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