I wanted to love "Ginger & Rosa", I really did. It has everything I like: British accents, long hair, Christina Hendricks, a serious female-driven story. And yet, the first hour of this 80-minute snore was so dull I had to prop myself up to keep from snoring. For a drama set during the Cuban Missile Crisis - which many feared meant nuclear holocaust - the stakes were remarkably low.
Elle Fanning displays dyed red hair and a mostly competent British accent as Ginger, the daughter of a former war protester (Alessandro Nivola) and the wannabe painter (Hendricks) he knocked up when she was a teenager. Ginger's devoted to her best friend Rosa (newcomer Alice Englert). As the threat of bombs draws closer, Ginger yearns for activism and Rosa yearns for...Ginger's newly-separated father.
What bothered me most is that Ginger's dad is having sex with an underage girl and doesn't appear to be that discreet about it. Of course, age of consent laws then were not what they are now, and naturally Ginger would be too much in shock to tell anyone, but up until the screechy climax (during the film's last 28 minutes, when it suddenly becomes interesting), no one really seems to care. In fact, I wondered if I was supposed to accept it, which made me even more uncomfortable.
Don't be swayed by the title: the film is from Ginger's perspective, as Rosa comes in and out of her life. The film's core relationships are Ginger and her parents, particularly her mother. Hendricks' Natalie is almost a better choice for the film's focal point: she wanted to pursue art until life got in the way, and now (like most mothers) isn't sure how to reach out to her child without dreaded nagging. Her expressive face and thoughtful delivery add a richness to the mostly bland script.
Nivola is appropriately creepy, and Oliver Platt and Annette Bening have some nice moments as Ginger's gay godfather and activist modern. Fanning's face is lovely for close-ups, and she's a believable adolescent: alternating between moody passion and shrugging apathy. But not much is done with her budding sense of right and wrong, and any real sense of fear or danger is brushed aside in favor of yet another long reaction shot or stilted line. Perhaps "Ginger & Rosa" would have worked better as a young adult novel, with beautiful prose to fill in the copious cracks.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47yoVmZeff0]