What Maisie Knew.

Director:	Scott McGehee, David Siegel
Country:	USA
Year:	2012
Running Time:	93 mins
Principle Cast:	Julianne Moore	Susanna
	Steve Coogan	Beale
	Onata Aprile	Maisie Elizabeth Beale
	Alexander Skarsgard	Lincoln
	Joanna Vanderham	Margo

Some people don’t deserve children! And that definitely includes Susanna, a fifty something rock and roll star who dresses like underage trailer trash and still thinks she can cut it sexually and on the road, and her husband Beale a charming, slightly sleazy art dealer. Both of these rich ‘Manhattanites’ hate one another and certainly do not take their responsibilities seriously when it comes to bringing up their seven-year-old daughter Maisie. When these two get an acrimonious divorce Maisie gets shared between them, but generally gets left in the care of each of their new partners, ex-nanny Margo and bar man Lincoln and its left to this young child to make decision’s well beyond her age.

The film has been adapted from a Henry James novel that was first published in 1897 and has been transposed to modern day New York City. This relationship drama, made for adult audiences, is seen thru the eyes of a child and even some of Giles Nuttgens cinematography is shot from Maisie’s eye level.

Following the film at the EIFF a short Q&A was conducted with Perthshire born Joanna Vanderham last seen in Stephan Poliakoff’s highly acclaimed TV Drama series Dancing on the Edge. She explained that she was contacted by her agent whilst filming in Glasgow and told that she was wanted for a part in a film that was to be made in America. Within a very short space of time she found herself in New York playing Margo in her first full-length feature film. The part, which was not necessarily written for someone with a Scottish accent, stretched her emotional acting ability. She went on to tell us that it was very special working with the talented Onata Aprile, who because of her age had restricted working hours.

 

Joanna Venderham takes part in the Q&A.

One can’t help but ask how a young girl could be so level headed when she has spent her first seven years parented by a pair of obnoxious and unlikable people. But the directors, with the help of a tremendous cast pull it off. There are times in the film when you, the audience, truly worry for the safety of a young child and the film would have been even more heart rendering if the character of Maisie had not stood up so well, tackling her hardships with such strength and fortitude.  Which I must admit is down to the brilliant acting of Onata Aprile who I believe has a very bright future. 

The Deep End.

Movie Poster.

It great to come across a good old-fashioned story, one with a beginning and a proper ending. The Deep End (2001) is one such film, you can safely sit in your front room with your chosen refreshments and enjoy a well-acted DVD with a decently thought out storyline. Directed by the regular writing and directing partnership of David Siegel and Scot McGhee, loosely adapted from the novel The Blank Wall by Elizabeth Sanxay Holding, a novel that was previously filmed in 1949 as The Reckless Moment starring James Mason and Joan Bennett. 

The latest adaptation’s central figure is middle class housewife and mother Margaret Hall, another outstanding performance from Tilda Swinton who was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for this role. Swinton’s character is a resourceful and single-minded woman tasked with bringing up two children and looking after her father-in-law while her absentee husband is constantly away serving in the US Navy. She is extremely worried about her teenage son Beau who has just been involved in a car crash while driving back from The Deep End, a Reno nightclub, under the influence of alcohol. His passenger was the 30-year-old owner of the club; Darby Reese whom Margaret suspects is having an affair with her son. She visits Mr Reese at his club and attempts to persuade him to stop seeing Beau. But when Reese visits Beau at the family home late one night it ends in disaster. Margaret discovers the visitors body the next morning and its her attempts to cover up the death, to protect her son, that leads her into a cat and mouse situation involving a couple of unsavoury characters (one of which was played by the Croatian actor Goran Visnjic) and an incriminating video tape.

It’s an unusual Hitchcockian type crime thriller very involving and appealing, cleverly scripted and directed which basically asks the time-honoured question how far is a mother prepared to go to protect her family? But I must say without Tilda Swinton’s formidable acting skills it would not be quite so satisfying.