Nancy

This film tells the story of a woman who thinks she was kidnapped when she was a child.

Though the film seems to be about Nancy, I think it really is about the couple with the missing child. They go through emotional rollercoasters every time when someone claims to have information about their missing child. I particularly like the fact that the result of the DNA test is implied and not explicit. I feel rather sad about how the couple react afterwards. There are three speeches by the her mother which indicates the result of the DNA test : in the snow just before the hunting accident, during dinner and when Nancy is interrupted from saying singing. It is heartbreaking to see that the mother would rather settle for the present, than have another dashed hope. I think this is an engaging and heartbreaking story.

Is no one going to ask about the effing wig? I mean it's the main character, the riddle, the subplot. No one addresses it? The Wig wasn't even in the credits. Dang, they did wig wrong.

The beginning of the movie was absorbingly unhurried, drawing you into the claustrophobic confines of antiheroine Nancy's (Andrea Riseborough) white bread world.

We witness her dysfunctional co-dependency with undemonstrative mother Betty (Ann Dowd, even dourer than in Handmaid). A poor excuse for a parent, she is the antonym of empowering of her offspring, discouraging downtrodden Nancy from trying, convinced she'll never succeed.

Riseborough impressively blends vulnerability and an innate dishonesty as this lost child-woman floundering on the outskirts of society cooking up interesting life experiences to swap like recipes in work lunch breaks, in an effort to convince everybody else that she's just like them.

When she wishful thinks herself the child kidnapped from dream parents Ellen (J. Smith-Cameron) and (Steve Buscemi) as a five-year-old, you cross your fingers and pray she's finally found where she belongs.

Ellen for me was the revelation in the piece, a picture of heartbreaking hope and desperate desire that this pretender's story prove true. The bond they forge is beautiful and visibly enriches them both. Smith-Cameron's face, betraying all her emotions, and her developing unconditional love for this would-be daughter reduce me to tears. Paul Raeburn's music helps to destroy me.

The film is full of ambiguities that intrigue rather than frustrate. Not much happens, in fact but we're allowed to watch a family drama play out and a soul adrift's quest for a safe mooring.

Interesting debut with strong performances and a compelling tale.

This could have gone down a darker, criminal route but wisely doesn't. It stays downbeat, and oddly touching.

'Nancy' is a quiet, contemplative movie. Sound scarcely rises above a normal conversational range; it would be easy to emphasize strong emotional beats in a story like this, but the tone is generally even and reserved to the point of almost feeling flat. Performances are notably subdued from all involved, including star Andrea Riseborough most of all, but also Steve Buscemi, from whom we usually expect roles of much more lively personality. Well after the plot actively stirs it never truly seems like it's begun at all, and not until the movie approaches its very end is there a sense of something profound at hand.

I enjoy and appreciate films of all flavors, including the most low-key and unbusy. 'Nancy' is well made from a technical standpoint, with especially swell consideration for the way scenes are arranged. There's a deft nuance to everyone's performances that aptly illustrates their skill, perhaps all the greater a challenge given the restrained air about the picture. Despite all this, I admittedly have a hard time engaging with the movie. It never feels incomplete, or lacking in any specific element per se. There's just not really anything to hold onto, anything that meaningfully sparks our imagination. 'Nancy' isn't bad, but I watch it and just don't feel the impact I assume was intended.

Art is subjective. Clearly this has an admiring audience, and I'm glad for that. I'm just not it. 'Nancy' is a reasonably worthwhile view if you come across it, but temper your expectations, and don't go out of your way.