Ashur Lazar (ruhsa)
I think the movie didn't do anything new, this story was mentioned and offered a lot in previous movies, and the fact that the movie never impressed me because drama movies should be more emotional and affect the feelings of the viewer, and sometimes make him cry!!! The movie was slow and never stirred my feelings. Frankly I liked the performance of Julianne Moore, and the beautiful parental interaction between Lincoln, Margo and Maisie .
Keyra J
The film is not so much about a bitter custody battle, but more about parenting (and step-parenting). Does good parenting mean buying gifts, toys, various gadgets and fighting for custody no matter what? Many people struggle to find a balance between career and family. For some people careers are of utmost importance - that's their #1 passion. For most people their family is what it's all about. And there are also people who are still lost no matter the age- insecure and dysfunctional. The film is about how challenging it is to be around such people, especially if you have to depend on them. THE NEGATIVE of this film is unfortunate use of animal. Animals are not toys. They are living, breathing creatures who feel affection, pain and fear just like we do. It simply does not make any sense to use and promote use of baby animals in a film about responsibility towards kids.
japonaliya
SPOILERS Of course!I will not rehash the plot of this excellent film. I will only comment on the subjective undercurrent of the story, and at the end pay a little homage to similar great child performances.A critic said that this film has a "happy ending." Unfortunately, I beg to differ.Since the film makers knew that they could not, within the constraints of a 2 hr. movie, show the maturation and aging of Maisie the way James could in a full novel, they (the film makers) chose to end the film on an outwardly superficial and subsequently, a very unsettling ending. Just as within the film, Maisie is viewed almost like a stagnant garden statue that is moved here and there by the whims of its owner, the ending is also one of "false" happiness, and security. a moment in time, or a slice of life fugue that becomes most unsettling, even horrifying when you realize that this idyllic moment is just that, a brief interlude.Soon, Maisie will have to go back to her mother, her father will be almost totally out of the picture, and who knows where Margo and Lincoln will end up because it is painfully obvious that the glue that holds them together is not a true budding love for each other, but an overwhelming love of Maisie and a need to be her saviors. But, in the end, they cannot be, and though we as viewers hope for the typical Hollywood happy ending, it also cannot be. The stoic innocence of Maisie's present will soon be shattered by the realities of adolescence and beyond. The fact that we can foresee the damaged adulthood that lays ahead despite the momentary reprieve is what is so horrific. Like the 1960's film of Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting", the "unseen" is often more horrifying than the usual theatrics of most films of this nature.In closing, I would also like to comment on the affective emotional state of Maisie. I think this subtlety is where the film really stands out. We have been subjected to enough graphic horrors of child abuse, child abandonment, and unfit parents in film. Movies of this nature tend to be terrifying like "Bastard Out of Carolina" or lightly played as in Kramer Vs. Kramer. Maisie is characterized almost as an enigma. We see her for the most part as a receptacle of the unchecked emotions of the grownups that surround her, yet she does not let us into her world, but we "know" what damage to her psyche must be taking place.The most poignant moment in the film (to me) came where Maisie, for one brief moment lets down her emotive guard and while lying in her bed, sheds a single tear. We then "know" what Maisie "knew"It also did not escape me that considering Maisie's almost "frozen" inner emotional state of being, that this momentary realization on her part, was an either intentional, or unintentional homage to that famous scene in the French short film, "La Jetee"Maybe, it was in this moment that Maisie (as the James novel evokes) has a premonition of "the death of her own childhood". Because despite Maisie's false bravado, the film's ending is a but a momentary false hope.The truer narrative is that Maisie, along with Margo and Lincoln will be forced by circumstance to soon confront the transient nature of their beach house fairy-tale, and we as viewers must transition from the world of film to the bleaker future realities of Henry James's novel.This performance by child actor, Onata Aprile, reminded me of another child actress, Ana Torrent, who's wonderful understated acting can be seen in the films: El Espíritu de la Colmena (The Spirit of the Beehive) and Cría Cuervos (Raise Ravens) my personal favorite.Though a totally different style of acting, probably the best performance of a child acting in a film period, was Ann Carter in the 1944 film, "Curse of the Cat People" the Val Lewton masterpiece that could be (and has been use d as such) A textbook of child psychology. The title has nothing to do with this gem of a movie, used only to appease his RKO contract to make a sequel. Lewton wanted to call the film, "Anna and Her Friend"And lets not forget the over the top "stagy" by design, performance of Patty McCormack in the 1956 film, "The Bad Seed" (too bad the Hayes code did not permit the film to end like the book...the movie's only flaw)Finally, one of the most beautiful performance by a child actor was Patricia Gozzi, in the 1962 Best Picture, "Sundays and Cybele" ( Les Dimanches de Ville d'Avray) I cry every time I see this film, now out in BD.
