I've always had a like-strongly dislike relationship with Noah Baumbach & Greta Gerwig, the two minds behind the new comedy Mistress America. Often the films they make and characters they produce feel way too quirky to ever really enjoy. Other times, they get into a more subdued state and impress the hell out of me. In this year's fantastic drama Eden, Gerwig has a brief but effective role as a former lover of the main character. Baumbach has produced some gems from Kicking And Screaming to the criminally underrated The Squid And The Whale to this year's very enjoyable While We're Young.
The quirk level on this newest independent comedy is high and it really took me a while to warm up to it but the more I thought about the film, the more I liked it. The film does have a lot of the usual tropes that I don't like in Baumbach & Gerwig (who wrote the screenplay together, Gerwig is one of the two leads, Baumbach directs) but this one is short, sweet and to the point. I was not a big fan of their last big collaboration, Frances Ha (it may be important to note that Baumbach & Gerwig have been together since 2011 and thus will continue to make films together as long as their relationship doesn't fall apart.) The problem I had with that film is the quirkiness was the entire film. Every time Frances (Gerwig) opened her mouth, I wanted to just tell her to stop. But I digress & am now unfairly comparing two films.
What works in Mistress America is the fact that the quirkiness of it all is just one part of the overall film. Gerwig does do her usual Zooey Deschanel-lite schtick but it's in service of the character rather than being the entire character. In one particular moment set in a house of someone Gerwig used to know, she even does a bit in which she "rewinds" herself. In a film with less restraint, this would have completely bugged me. Here, it's just part of the character.
The plot follows Tracy (Kirke,) an awkward but sweet college student who finds out her mother is planning to remarry. One particularly lonely night, she decides to call her sister-in-law to be, Brooke (Gerwig) and they decide to have a night out together. However, their relationship gets much deeper when a fortune teller informs Brooke that she still has business in her life to take care of.
In my opinion, the best scene is one early in the film set in a dingy bar. Without giving away what happens in the scene, it is incredibly well done in how it will leave audiences divisive about what to make of it. After my screening, I heard many people debating this scene and whether it tried to convey X or Y. This scene also stays completely away from the quirk and allows the audience to see these people through a different light.
Gerwig & Kirke have amazing chemistry, instantly making it totally believable that these two people not only enjoy one another but largely need the other. At the Q&A that followed my screening, Gerwig mentioned that she and Kirke were enjoying each other's company on set so much, Baumbach often got irritated with them. This is totally seen through their natural interactions and palpable chemistry.
The film does have some problems, however. While it is enjoyable and nicely subdued for the majority of the running time, the quirkiness is a bit too much at first. When we first meet Brooke, I felt as if Gerwig was still trying to figure the character out for a bit. It's not until the scene in the bar that I didn't feel as if Gerwig was overdoing Brooke. She seemed to treat her as more of an idea than an actual person. That wasn't the right approach and fortunately she begun to realize that. Also, the extended sequence in the house does drag on for a bit too long. It was a clever set up for a 10 minute gag but it went on past the point of being enjoyable. Half of the film if not more is set in this house and after a while, it's just not funny or charming or at all good anymore. Lastly, the film's finale is very touching but would have been so much more effective if it weren't so convenient. At the end, everything is wrapped up in too much of a bow. It's the completely overused cliche of the thing that splits the characters apart before they ultimately get back together. That cliche isn't even so bad if it produces a worth while reveal, middle part and conclusion. However, this film only takes around 10 minutes after the reveal to get Tracy and Brooke back together. This led to a finale that was touching but also felt incredibly rushed.
Mistress America clocks in at 84 minutes and that was certainly enough. For the most part, I enjoyed what Baumbach and Gerwig had to offer. However, I was glad it ended when it did because it ultimately ends up feeling like an ice cream headache---delicious at first before becoming too much to handle.
(3 and 1/2 out of 5 Stars, The film is rated R for language including some sexual references)
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