Director: Noah Baumbach
Talent: Greta Gerwig, Mickey Sumner, Adam Driver, Michael Zegen
Release Date: 26th July 2013
As joyful as the best Woody Allen films have been, as important in shaping outsiders’ romantic impressions of New York, there has always been something ridiculous about the ease with which his characters lead their lives. His lovelorn heroes are people of substantial means, yet with no struggle and often no visible source of income. For most of its running time, Noah Baumbach’s story about Frances (Greta Gerwig), an apprentice dancer finding herself pushed out of this idealised life, threatens to show the true costs of pursuing the New York-movie dream when jobs for creative people are scarce and rents are high. Like the characters in Manhattan, Annie Hall or Hannah and Her Sisters, Frances’ life initially seems little concerned with finances as she and best friend Sophie (Mickey Sumner) struggle humorously with relationships against the familiar backdrops of Central Park and dinner parties attended by arty, articulate professionals. Unlike Woody Allen’s films, however, this story turns on the difficulty of paying for all this metropolitan fun. As our doofus-ish protagonist loses her best friend and her lowly position within the dance company, we entertain the dizzying possibility that Frances might end up broke and friendless, dying on the street or ― worse fate ― scraping a dull life outside of New York. The film exerts a grip as long as it resembles a test-case of what might befall any Woody Allen character left to forage in the real world. Unfortunately, the film straightens out this curve in the final act as Frances finds her way, reconciles with Sophie and sees her talents fêted. Huzzah for Frances and the promise of future dinner parties, gallery openings and walks in Central Park! Without the edge of providing an antidote to overly familiar Woody Allen fare, however, we are left wondering what this film has to offer, beyond the evergreen appeal of an imaginary life in New York, dolled up with modish mumblecore tinsel.
