The Chaperone

It is significant that the title is "The Chaperone" and not "The Dancer."

My wife and I watched this at home on DVD from our public library. Before I saw the movie I had no idea who Louise Brooks was. From Kansas and in 1922 at the age of 15 she, along with a chaperone, went to NYC to try out for a dance troupe. While her life was a rocky road she indeed did go on to dance and star in a number of silent movies in the 1920s and 1930s.

While her memoirs did mention a chaperone to New York nothing is known of her, so for this movie one is created, Elizabeth McGovern as Norma, and much of the story focuses on her, her life back home, her experiences in New York trying to find out where she came from because she was adopted as an orphan.

Haley Lu Richardson, who really is an accomplished dancer, is in the role of Louise Brooks, with he bob black haircut looking pretty much like Louise did back then.

This is a good movie, very well made with interesting stories.

I aware of Louise Brooks as a big silent movie star but aside from seeing the trailer, I didn't know what to expect. I was completely engrossed by the story of the precocious Louise Brooks' start as a talented dancer & the entwined story of her chaperone, played by Elizabeth McGovern. McGovern's is the main story & charts her growing independence. I loved the shots of New York in the 1920s. The story occurs in the context of the burgeoning women's rights movement, shifting moralities & attitudes towards black Americans. I would have loved to have seen Louise's trajectory in the jazz era movie business & beyond, but that would be a whole other film. Can someone please make it?

The story takes place when the teenage Louise Brooks (Haley Lu Richardson) leaves Wichita for New York City. She has been accepted to a major dancing academy and has no doubt that she'll be asked to join their dancing troupe. She is, as required at the time, accompanied by a chaperone, Norma Carlisle (Elizabeth McGovern). The spirited Louise and the proper Norma seem to have little in common other than wanting to be in New York City. But we soon learn that there is more to Norma than meets the eye. A couple of surprises explain Norma's earlier behavior in her interactions with her husband (Campbell Scott) as well as her later behavior as the story progresses. McGovern and Richardson share most of the screen time along with some brief appearances by Amanda Otto, Blythe Danner and Géza Röhrig. I continue to be impressed with Richardson who came to my attention, in 2016, in Split and The Edge Of Seventeen.

The creator of Downton Abbey wrote the screenplay for The Chaperone, a story ostensibly about legendary silent screen star Louise Brooks' first trip to New York. Louise's cultured and elitist mother has big dreams for her daughter, which won't happen if she stays in Wichita. Louise (Haley Lu Richardson) can go to New York only if accompanied by a chaperone, and Elizabeth McGovern's Norma eagerly volunteers, for reasons later revealed. Richardson transforms wonderfully, capturing Lulu's energy and insouciance. Brooks quickly becomes the star pupil at the Denishawn Dance School, holds court at a swank Speakeasy called the Velvet Cat, and resents being told what to do by Norma, whom she likes but doesn't necessarily respect. The push-pull between Norma and Louise is a highlight.

Norma, with her nineteenth century sense of propriety, lives in quiet disappointment and repressed anger. Shocked by what she caught her husband (an excellent Campbell Scott) doing, and haunted by murky childhood memories, in which she was abandoned at a Catholic orphanage, waiting for adoption. The only thing that excites her is tracking down her birth mother and pining for a late life renewal. The film has a pleasing symmetry in how the two women's stories are told: For Brooks, it's just beginning, but also for Norma, in a feel-good twist of irony that is so very Downtonesque.

Elizabeth McGovern is the reason to see this. She brings to life what, in other hands, could be a cliched character. She has become a much more interesting actress as she's aged; you can't take your eyes off her (those eyes!). The Louise Brooks subplot serves its purpose but seems a bit strained. Blythe Danner, Miranda Otto, Campbell Scott and other familiar names essay their supporting roles well, and the period is recreated nicely. Overall, very entertaining and not nearly as predictable as you would think.