04th Jan2014

What Maisie Knew – DVD

by timbaros

images-56What Maisie Knew is a heartbreaking film about a 7 year old girl in the middle of her parents divorce and the extreme hostility between them.

 Maisie, played by a really amazing Onata Aprile, is a very sweet, typical 7 year old girl. Both her parents, rock singer Susanna (Julianne Moore) and English businessman Beale (Steve Coogan) have very busy lives. While they both love the daughter to pieces, they hardly have any time to spend with her. They always shuffling her between both of their New York City apartments, constantly arguing on whose turn it is to have her, whose turn it is to pick her up at school, and really whose turn it is to be the parent.
Things get really complicated when Julianne’s former right hand assistant Margo (Joanna Vanderham) moves in with Beale, while Susanna quickly takes on a new husband in the form of bartender Lincoln (a sweet and charming Alexander Skarsgard). When Beale decides that he has to go to England to work on his business ventures (without taking Maisie), and at the same time Susanna has to embarks on a tour that she can’t get out of, it is up to Margo and Lincoln to watch over and take care of little Maisie.
The most amazing thing about this movie is Aprile’s performance. She is absolutely great in this film. She is cute as a button and has the most soulful eyes and the cutest giggle of any little actress in recent memory. She also displays an incredible look of sorrow when her father tells her he can’t take her to London with him, and more sorrow when her mother all of a sudden departs on her tour. She also has a very sad look of exasperation on her face when her mother needs to find a place to drop her off so someone else can take care of her. Moore, who always gives a great performance in any movie that she is in, is also very good as the rock star singer living a rock star life, but with a little girl she barely has time to take care of, and always on her phone or hanging out with her rock star buddies. Coogan is an OK choice to play the father, but it is hard to believe that a woman like Susanna would fall in love with a man like him. Vanderham and Skarsgard also give excellent performances as the other halves who understand Maisie’s needs. But it is the performance of Aprile, the twinkle in her eye, and the smile on her face at the end of the movie, that will long last way after you have seen the film.
What Maisie Knew is now out on DVD.

 

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