Movie Review - What Maisie Knew

What Maisie Knew (2013)

Starring Julianne Moore, Alexander Skarsgård, Onata Aprile, Joanna Vanderham, and Steve Coogan

Directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel

What Maisie Knew is a movie you desperately want to end a certain way, but you figure while you're watching it that it never will pan out the way you hope and it causes a depressing pall to ceaselessly hang around.  I say that not as a criticism of the film at all, but instead as a credit to the screenwriters Nancy Doyne and Carroll Cartwright, young actress Onata Aprile in the title role, and directors Scott McGehee and David Seigel who craft a movie told essentially entirely from through the eyes of a six year-old girl being used as a pawn by her parents (Julianne Moore and Steve Coogan) in a bitter custody battle.  What Maisie Knew isn't without its faults, but it's a film worth seeing thanks to the unique perspective we witness to decidedly adult situations.

As the film opens we see black screen with a female and male voice arguing with each other using decidedly adult language.  We soon discover that these voices belong to Susanna (Julianne Moore), a pushy rock star who likes to live life a little on the edge, and Beale (Steve Coogan), her live-in long-time significant other who's had enough of her rough persona, but seems a bit too egotistical for his own good.  This argument between Susanna and Beale happens within earshot and eyeshot of six year-old Maisie (played by the aforementioned Aprile in her first film role) and it will be the first of many times we see her subjected to listening to her parents duke it out with one another and then later try and convince her that the other parent is "the bad one."  With Susanna and Beale fighting in court for custody of young Maisie, they both decide that they'll look better in the court's eyes if they find someone to "love" again, thereby raising Maisie in a two-person family.  Beale hooks up with Maisie's nanny Margo (Joanna Vanderham), a fellow Brit whose innocence makes her actually believe Beale has no ulterior motives to marrying her.  Susanna finds Lincoln (Alexander Skarsgård), a guy who at first glance seems to be a lackadaisical loser, but just may be the kind of loving support young Maisie needs.  Both Margo and Lincoln are simply props in the vicious game Susanna and Beale are playing and despite the fact that they're simply being used, they both find themselves growing to love young Maisie and hating what her parents are putting her through.

What I find refreshingly original about What Maisie Knew is that the entire story is told from the perspective of the six year-old Maisie.  I'm not sure there's a single scene that's depicted that doesn't have Maisie either in it or peering in on it.  Kudos to the directors for keeping things squarely focused -- it may not be the most technically fascinating film, but this perspective (and the willingness to not shift from this framework) certainly aids the movie.  

Whereas Maisie's innocence may not allow her to fully understand everything her parents are doing to her, we in the audience grow to have an intense hatred for the way Susanna and Beale manipulate her young mind into kowtowing to their intentions.  Little Onata Aprile gives a very nice performance in a role that never once feels as if it's being "acted."  Granted, Aprile's character isn't necessarily forced to do anything outwardly that gives her a fantastic "moment," but I was certainly impressed with the young girl's ability to communicate all we needed to know with simply the naturalness of her wide eyes or hushed silence.

Unfortunately, the film falters a bit with the performances of Julianne Moore and Steve Coogan.  Much focus is placed on their relationship and I found both of them to be playing their roles a bit too one-notish.  Neither adult seems fully developed, but rather portraying caricatures of who they are supposed to be.  Additionally -- and there's a slight spoilerish aspect that comes along with this final comment -- the film ends in a wholly unexpected way that seems a bit too farfetched to be truly believable.  I simply couldn't imagine the narcissistic parents we've grown to hate throughout the movie doing what they do at the film's conclusion.  Fault for this lies in both the screenwriters and the actors and it does ultimately knock the film down several notches despite its other positive attributes.  

The RyMickey Rating:  B-