Frances Ha Review

Frances Ha review

Yay, just what I’ve always wanted, another indie flick which thinks it’s cool and funny and different. Except that this one actually is. Greta Gerwig is the clumsy, easily distracted, eponymous heroine who loves living with her best mate and is heartbroken when she moves out. Frances lurches from flat share to flat share, even going back to live in her old university halls. She’s impulsive (flies to Paris on a whim, leaving her bankrupt and isolated) and her conversation is random. Vague friends of friends become her best mates in a heartbeat but no-one will live up to Sophie, who is her “person” (and incidentally is played by Sting and Trudie Styler's daughter, Mickey Sumner). Frances is as endearing as she is alienating, you could easily go for a pint with her and stay up all night or run a mile as soon as she tries to “play fight” with you.

The premise is unusual; a film about a woman who isn’t obsessed with men and sex? That can’t be right… and it’s great to see. Women often get a raw deal in cinema, as if men consume them and everything they do. We have rom-coms to thank for that I suppose, so it's refreshing to see someone taking risks and not patronising audiences. Frances is the epitome of 'different', which involves weird running (à la Phoebe and Rachel in Friends) and an easy candidness which forces you to listen to her opinions. Her aim in life is not to find a man but essentially to enjoy herself. Everything is easy come, easy go. She gets a tax rebate and immediately goes out for dinner. She loses her job and goes back to work at her old college, even moving into dorms. It's not as fun as the first time round.

I envy her flexibility and thick skin and no-one could have played her other than Greta Gerwig. Gerwig is an actress known for her roles in Damsels in Distress, To Rome with Love and Russell Brand's version of Arthur. I thought Damsels was pretentious and self indulgent but I seemed to be in the minority - it was highly acclaimed by many critics but what I felt was left wanting in Damsels was achieved in Frances Ha. Gerwig clearly enjoys a type of role, scenes from Frances Ha have clearly been lifted from Damsels, you need only look at the trailers but this time, she's on the right side of entertaining.

Don't expect much action - it's a conversation based piece - but don't be surprised if you too accidentally fall for the charms of this unnecessarily black and white, heart-achingly cool, female-centric, gentle comedy. 

4/5 stars