Two teenage girls living in 1960s London.
Director Sally Potter shrewdly weaves the domestic drama...against the backdrop of nuclear paranoia and social change, but at times allows her dialogue to shift from smart to on-the-nose.
The emotions feel bracingly real, due in no small part to the tone set by Fanning’s committed performance.
Unfortunately, director Sally Potter fails to locate much momentum. This isn’t so much slow burn as gradual petrification.
A collection of hoary old artistic clichés performed by a thesp-heavy cast – among them Annette Benning, Alessandro Nivola, Oliver Platt and Christina Hendricks – who talk in ways that bear little relation to how people actually interact.
Despite some strong moments, Ginger and Rosa fails to really convince.
Fans of Sally Potter’s devious and exuberant Orlando (1992) have waited – in my case more than half a lifetime – for her to make anything remotely as good since. Ginger & Rosa, modest in scale but glowing, tender and thoughtful, is better late than never.
Fine actors like Annette Bening, Jodhi May and Timothy Spall are sold short in underwritten parts. More rigour in the storytelling would not have gone amiss.
This is a teenage movie that could in other hands have been precious; instead it has delicacy and intelligence.
A classy, coming of age drama.
Sincere and heartfelt, but there are too many rough edges for it to take of as a satisfying drama.
The dialogue is flat, the staging inert, the performances uneasy and the accents of the imported American actors uncertain. A big disappointment.
Imagine a humourless remake of An Education, with more adolescent philosophising, plus regular close-ups of Fanning with a single tear rolling down her cheek.
Preachy self-parody.
It’s a slow-burner, and although not a lot happens, the film offers intimate insight into the era from an almost forgotten perspective.
Sally Potter: 'I dreamed about the nuclear threat most nights'
Sally Potter: Interview
Interview: Sally Potter on Ginger and Rosa
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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