Ryan McNeil
When we’re young, there are often times that we hitch our star to just one or two people. They could be people our age or people older than us. We will look to them for friendship, guidance, and validation, and we will model ourselves after them in many ways. But every so often, we find that we have looked to the wrong person, and we are forced to face a harsh and unexpected loneliness. It’s these moments that will forge our spirits, and shape us into who we are truly meant to be.
Ginger and Rosa (Elle Fanning and Alice Englert respectively) have been friends all their lives – their mothers literally gave birth to them in hospital beds that were side by side. We begin to see their story in London, 1962. It’s a time where the nuclear threat looms large over the world, and soon the Cuban Missile Crisis in particular will lead to heightened fear.
During this time, the girls are the closest of friends. They spend long hours together, being free and having fun. They can often be found walking hand-in-hand, or leaning on one another, and their adventures take them all over London without regard for time or money.
Back at Ginger’s home, relationships are far more complicated. She is constantly at odds with her caring mother Natalie (Christina Hendricks), and seems to idolize her artistic, activist father Roland (Alessandro Nivola). The two unmarried parents seldom see eye-to-eye when it comes to what’s best for Ginger, making their family unit all the more dysfunctional. For a while it seems as though Ginger is happiest when she takes her cues from Roland and Rosa – it makes her world a happy place.
But as we’ve already established, in 1962, the world could end at any moment.
GINGER & ROSA is about many things, but what feels most prevalent upon reflection is the intensity that comes with youth. When we’re young, our friends become our whole world – especially if we only have one close one. That person becomes something of a sibling, it’s the sibling we have chosen. In the case of Ginger & Rosa, they have known each other so long that they might as well be siblings. However it’s easy to see that they are so much more. They are two people sharing the same spirit, with a love for one-another that isn’t quite romantic, but also seems more than platonic. We see it in the way they lean on one-another, often walking hand-in-hand. Should one lose the other, it might well feel worse than if the nuclear threat hovering over them came to fruition.
That same intensity we feel when we’re young is what leads us into making bad decisions. We have grand dreams of what we can bring to a situation, and how far our voices carry. We believe that we’re feeling things nobody else has ever felt, and seeing the world in ways nobody else can see. How this leads to bad decision-making is the way it causes us to turn our backs on the people who care about us. We knock their outstretched hand away because “they don’t understand”…but they do. They understand because they care about us and can see what we see – odds are they saw things that way too once.
There are some fierce connections in various forms between Ginger, Rosa, Nat, and Roland. They all see different things in one-another, and what they see has a way of complicating their lives. All four actors do amazing things – both amazingly beautiful and amazingly awful – in he name of these relationships. The film gives us moments of genuine pride, and pieces of intense betrayal. What’s more, the film has enough respect for its audience to show them these moments, and not just tell them. It would be so easy to give these characters dialogue about the joys and sorrows their decisions are causing. However, by putting that unspoken dialogue in the actors’ expressions and gestures, the movie becomes something more genuine and intelligent.
At the core of the film is Elle Fanning’s performance as Ginger. So much of the film hangs on her performance, and she never disappoints. She taps into both the exuberance of a happy friend, and the bitterness of a malcontent daughter. All of this is done with an ease that is well beyond her years, allowing her to measure up with so many of her fellow cast members that are well older than her. In the late-going, she speaks through sobs about everything that is troubling her. There is nothing about this moment that feels calculated or put-on. Instead, what see is a young girl who has finally reached her breaking point. Everybody in the room is deeply concerned for her in this instant, and so are we in the audience. It’s a place that couldn’t have been easy for Fanning to get to, and its rawness displays an undeniable amount of talent.
The subtle beauty of GINGER & ROSA will stick with you for a long time after the credits roll. The spectre of The End of The World looms large over the story, which is fitting given how we can feel that way when we all are Ginger and Rosa’s age. All it takes is a break-up, or a failing grade, or bad game and it feels like everything we know is doomed. It’s melodramatic and a bit self-involved, and happily we eventually grow out of it. However, in growing out of it, we never again live as intensely as we do when we are young…when our friendships mean everything and we can see romance in the falling rain.
There are definitely benefits that come with maturity, but many might forsake a lot of those benefits for the chance to see the world the way Ginger & Rosa do for just one more day.
Nice review Ryan. I’ve had this on my radar for a little while now and keep meaning to give it a watch. Sounds pretty interesting.
Sorry for the late reply.
Do give it a watch – it’s relatively straightforward, but comes with so much beautiful subtlety that it turns into something really special. I think it’s even on blu-ray already in the UK.
We also discussed it on episode 82 of my podcast if you want to hear a bit more about it.
ELLE FANNING! I knew she looked familiar… this is going to my To Be Watched ASAP-list. Very nicely written, thank you!
Okay, I saw it and THANK YOU, it was rather amazing. I saw the not-platonic but not-romantic relationship between them there too and it was both scary and adorable. And Elle Fanning was incredible, too.
Wow – I consider it a high compliment when someone goes out and sees something on my recommendation! Now I want to read what you have to say about it – especially since the main characters are much closer to your way of seeing the world than mine.
PS – Like I just mentioned to Terry, we discussed the film on Episode 82 of the podcast as well. You might like to listen!