Frances Ha

FRANCES HA



Director : Noah Baumbach

Year : 2013

Genre : Drama

Rating : **

Starring Greta Gerwig, 'Frances Ha' is the latest movie from indie king Noah Baumbach, who is probably most famous for his 2005 film 'The Squid & The Whale' which was adored by critics and fans across the world. Now he returns with 'Frances Ha', a strange and sometimes overly pretentious drama that focuses on the life of a young woman trying to deal with her future and an adolescence she refuses to let go of. Shot in beautiful black and white, 'Frances Ha' is reminiscent of some of the early works of Woody Allen, but unfortunately the film is bogged with sometimes annoying dialogue, unlikable characters and a fair amount of navel gazing. More obnoxious than endearing, 'Frances Ha' is an often frustrating film that believes that style and visuals are more important that story arcs and narrative. For a large majority of the film, I found myself rolling my eyes and looking at my watch hoping that it would end as soon as possible. Thinking about it, it's not the movie itself that is bad, but it is the central performance from Gerwig that is so teeth grindingly irritating and frustratingly 'independent'. Clearly, this sort of dialogue wouldn't feature in a  mainstream movie, so it is confined to the barriers of indie filmmaking and I really hope that is where it stays.

The jumbled and wandering narrative follow the life of titular Frances, a twenty seven year old Brooklynite whose world is turned upside down where her best friend Sophie (played by Mickey Summer) finds a partner and decides to move to Japan. Facing a downward spiral, Frances faces unemployment, having to move from apartment to apartment and failing to enter into a relationship of her own.

Currently Baumbachs partner, Greta Gerwig not only plays the main protagonist but also features as the lead producer for 'Frances Ha'. This is evident within 5 minutes of it's starting time as there is not one frame of this movie which doesn't have her in it. Clearly Baumbach loves his girlfriend and is determined to give her as much screen time as possible, but this is where the movie makes its biggest misstep and what a misstep it is. A saturation of this kind of character in a film really becomes a pretention overload and forces the movie into a slow, sometimes unbearably stationary ebb that it never seems to drag itself out from. There are moments where we do feel sorry for her and wish her the best but as soon as 'Frances Ha' looks like it is changing tact and actually moving on from the annoying idiosyncrasies and boring dialogue, Baumbach reverts backs to the same elements that made the film such a pain in the first place. In the cinema I was in, there was a large amount of tutting, talking and clock watching and to me, it seemed like a majority of the audience just wanted it to end; even to the extent of a dozen or so viewers walking out. I love independent film and when it is done right, it can prove to be the best form of moviemaking going. But not when it done like this; with it's nose in the air and it's head stuck up it's own backside. 

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