Butler's Cinema Scene

Elle Fanning, Alice Englert

“GINGER & ROSA”  My rating: B- (Opening April 5 at the Glenwood at Red Bridge)

90 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13

When confronted by someone of fierce political and social commitment – particularly if their bent is way to the left – I always wonder  if  they’re really that dedicated to the cause or whether the cause fills some desperate void in their life.

You don’t have to wonder for too long in Sally Potter’s “Ginger & Rosa,” a film about an impressionable and innocent London teen who converts her anger and anxiety over personal betrayals into a righteous anti-nuke crusade.

The girls of the title are among the first of Britain’s post-war baby boomers. It’s 1962 and Ginger (Elle Fanning) and Rosa (Alice Englert, daughter of director Jane Campion) are coming of age beneath the threat of nuclear annihilation.

On one level they’re just regular kids who listen to rock ‘n’ roll, giggle conspiratorially, dream about boys and shrink their new blue jeans by wearing them into the bathtub.

On another level, though, the two young friends are nascent radical activists, terrified of dying in a radioactive mushroom cloud and determined to do something about it.

Elle Fanning, Alessandro Nivola

It’s not hard to detect the sources of their alarmed world view.  Ginger’s dad Roland (Alessandro Nivola) is a college professor and charismatic (if irritatingly smug) rebel rouser. And the girls get plenty of countercultural stiumation from a local gay couple (Timothy Spall, Oliver Platt) and an old leftie named Bella (Annette Bening).

Early on it’s obvious that Ginger is the more intellectual of the two and the most vulnerable emotionally. Rosa tags along on their placard-waving adventures, but her interests are more personal and less idealistic.

This becomes all too clear when she instigates a sexual relationship with the self-centered (and, for all his lofty speechifying, morally challenged) Roland. It’s a double betrayal – “My best friend and my…father?” — that drives Ginger ever deeper into Ban the Bomb activism.

I wish I had enjoyed “Ginger & Rosa” more. Potter’s film nicely captures the look and feel of the time, especially the anxiety of young people who flinch at every siren lest it signal the arrival of Russian missiles. (As a youngster I was pretty much convinced we were all going to die in an atomic war…how am I not more screwed up?)

But the film never quite hooked me.

Still, there’s no ignoring Fanning’s marvelous performance.  Dakota’s little sister (she was only 14 when she played a 17-year-old in this movie) exhibits an astounding range and a deep comprehension of the characters she plays. I cannot think of another young actress capable of  going so deeply into both  Ginger’s inner and outer lives.

| Robert W. Butler