Frances Ha (2012)

"You look older but a lot less grown up"

People as diverse Buddy the Elf and Annie Hall all call New York their stomping ground and along with these iconic figures comes Frances Halladay. Her bubble does extend to France and California, but New York is really her home base. In Noah Baumbach's film we follow this enigma as her address constantly changes and she strives to follow her dream of becoming a professional dancer. We are allowed time to examine and analyze her in all sorts of situations, because plot usually gives way to various asides showcasing the free spirit who is Frances.

She worries about money, can't pay rent, wants to play fight with her best friend, and is a self-proclaimed "undateable." She acts like a five year old one moment and has an almost unknowing beauty about her.  In other words she's a real winner. We cannot help but fall in love with since she wins us over with her oddities from beginning to end. Her friend Sophie cannot stay mad with her forever either. It's just not possible. They have to make up.

 Frances settles down one final time after trying her time rather successfully at choreography and moving back to Washington Heights. There we get one last little nugget. We finally can chuckle knowingly about the title of this film. It's so Frances and it's perfect cherry on top of the sundae.

In the tradition of New York films, Baumbach's effort has a visual style that was probably meant to hearken back to the austere black & white of Woody Allen's Manhattan. In some sense it acts as another character altogether. Whether he is pandering to us or not, there is no doubt that I am a sucker for the cinematography and it made things just a little bit more magical.

Thankfully Greta Gerwig helped craft this script and in her character she found the perfect paradox. An individual so extremely quirky but still somehow believable in the same instance. Her foibles and pratfalls only help to solidify her character in our mind. The fact is that each of us probably knows some variation of Frances. Those individuals who dance to a different drum and give every single day that they live on this earth a certain degree of pizzazz. I speak for all the cautious rationally minded human beings out there. We need the Frances Ha's to make us laugh and to shake up life a bit.

4/5 Stars