She Came to Me

Director/screenwriter Rebecca Miller has fashioned quite a quirky relationship roundelay in this 2023 dramedy as she focuses on a dumbfounding love triangle saved from complete absurdity by the dexterity of the three leads. The plot is convoluted. Stephen Lauddem is a famous composer with writer's block who sleeps with Katrina, a shopworn tugboat captain with a sex addiction, and then writes a celebrated opera about their fast affair. Stephen is married to Patricia, a beautiful Manhattan therapist with OCD and a strange obsession with nuns. There's a parallel story of Patricia's son who is in love with the underaged daughter of the family maid whose husband is hellbent on breaking up the relationship. All the story strands come together but don't emotionally resonate nearly as much as they should. Miller seems more preoccupied with the characters' eccentricities. The star performances compensate. Peter Dinklage plays Stephen with jaundiced charm, while Anne Hathaway shows off a welcome edginess to Patricia. Marisa Tomei conveys a convincing lived-in approach to Katrina that helps ground the movie's somewhat flighty tone.

It can be a musician, an artist, a play or a film. It leaves you baffled. Liking it, is just the bonus.

The roles resemble a box of frogs. Everybody is hiding behind a curtain of creative or functional normal. Only Katrina, who in theory is the maddest of all, has the real sole and sanity. She is the most sincere.

The film jingles along - dysfunctional and baffling until that moment in the bar when Katrina interrupts sullen Steven. Immediately the chemistry kicks in. Once again Marisa Tomei edges a film.. never obvious. I couldn't issue a plethora of spoilers, as half the time I was grappling with the odd plot. Rebecca Miller directs, produces and writes a challenging and thought provoking parable ? This is a slow burner.

Peter Dinklage and Marisa Tomei are absolutely fantastic in this film. Their presences on screen, individually and together, demand attention at all times. This even while struggling through a woefully pedestrian script, the expository parts of which are mind-numbingly bland. Thankfully, these two are able to rise above script. And it doesn't hurt that even made to look a bit rough as a tugboat captain, Marisa Tomei is positively gorgeous in her late 50s. But that's about where the praise slows down. The truth is, they are not on screen for nearly enough time.

There are three intertwined stories that never really quite gel cinematically (go see a John Sayles film, Lone Star, or Sunshine State to see this done masterfully). Anne Hathaway is serviceable, but in a role that could be, and largely was, phoned in. One extreme (the kreplach) scene, presumably meant to go viral, doesn't really land. Nor does the rather telegraphed final joke for her character (no spoiler).

But the anchor that drags this otherwise interesting film down is the onerous thread of the star-crossed teens. A bad script with supreme talent (Dinklage and Tomei), leaves a film short of its potential but passable. A bad script with dull and listless young actors is a recipe for an atrocious afterschool special. The ham-fisted symbolism of the father's Civil War re-enactments (isn't that really just cosplay, though?) and the 'futurism' of the teens gets hammered home. There were audible shifts from the audience with whom I watched, as scenes changed from the dynamism of the leads to the lethargy of the teen story. The biggest problem with this is that the audience needs to care about these two young people and their future. And we just don't.

Unfortunately, the three threads are needed to make the story come around full circle in the end. Only one thread is compelling with Dinklage and Tomei. Hathaway's thread had potential but ultimately was just tangential, and the teens' thread was a burden to endure to necessitate the final act. And all this and overwrought opera presentations, not good enough to be worthy of praise, but not quite so obviously parodic to garner laughter. Perhaps that's symbolic of the film itself, middling. Dinklage and Tomei deserved better.

This film gives me hope that there are still writers/actors/producers out there who understand what I need in a movie. I'm NOT the demographic anymore. So Gems like this are hard for me to find.

The film is unique! With a tugboat, (with female captain) opera theater, (with composer) and a psychiatrist with O. C. D.

I LOVED the characters. Imperfect but well intended characters who each come to a greater awareness of what is needed to be more fulfilled and happy.

This film has heart. It's subject matter about real emotions set in a quirky set of circumstances is very relatable and heartwarming. Reminiscent of good ole fashioned story telling that touches the soul.

Something I desperately needed.

P. S./added edit.....I was unfamiliar with the director, Rebecca Miller. Without making any connections, I had actually seen one of her movies years ago that I thought was brilliant with Daniel Day Lewis. And am now, halfway thru her 2016 movie. She has a very clear point of view. And it's very relatable to me as a woman who has said and thought some of the same ideas that Ms. Miller explores in her movies. I'm such a fan!!! Looking forward to catching up on her past films and hope she has more coming!

I'm a big fan of Peter Dinklage and Rebecca Miller has a fantastic actress eye and pen for drama that's good fun.

This story has 2 very different plots that sort of come together in a clunky awkward manner that some might find strange but it works. The acting is superb by all cast and its premise gets so absurd that it's al list like a NY play that full of surprises.

The only absurd character is Anne Hathaway yet she pulls it off yet there is zero chemistry between them so Marisa Tomei is fantastic with Peter and that story could easily have been the main plot and been a masterpiece.

6 stars and looking forward to more from Rebecca Miller.