Noah Baumbach loves Greta Gerwig and its not funny. Frances Ha is amusing, but the “ha” is always on its own, without an accompanying “ha” (repeat) that makes for real laughter. The movie is and is not about Greta Gerwig. Greta Gerwig has had a very successful acting career in independent films, several you haven’t seen and one you may even like, Damsels in Distress. In that sense the movie is not about her; Frances is a dancer and is not a success. But Greta Gerwig is very good at quirky and that is what Frances Ha is all about, a quirky girl, or rather a young woman of 27 who cannot get over being a quirky girl. The real life Gerwig makes a success of that kind of cuteness in the way that the movie’s Frances wishes to, but cannot.
Frances makes bad choices and just because she loves to dance doesn’t mean that she has talent. We are meant to feel sorry for her. You might think that by 27 years of age a woman like Frances would have learned a little about making wise choices, but she is just too off-beat. Theoretically, the movie is about her learning to make better choices; the character actually gets to accomplish something by the end, although we no way of understanding how she found the wherewithal to pull that off. That lesson-learning and the exploration of friendship within the female experience is what the movie is about.
Except it might really be about how director Noah Baumbach loves Greta Gerwig so much that the camera never lets us take our eyes off of her; it loves her, too. It is possible that the self-deprecation of the character in the plot reflects what the actress is like, really, and is therefore necessary for Baumbach’s purpose, which seems to be to let us all know how wonderful Greta Gerwig is. However, for the viewer, the movie might be about the limitations of cute. It ought to be if it isn’t. Quirkness has a limited range and can be wearing, which is what limits Frances in her relationships with men, work and friends. May it be a lesson — to someone.
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Church in the Age of Therapy
In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…
Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot
On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…
The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen
Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…
