Part of The Oregonian's team coverage of the 36th Portland International Film Festival....
'Ginger & Rosa'
This potent little period drama from writer/director Sally Potter ("Orlando") is about many things -- rebellion, compromise, and the horrible inappropriate selfish things adults can do while using their "ideals" as an excuse. But most viscerally it's about Potter keeping her camera tightly trained on every tiny expression by Elle Fanning, who gives a subtly stunning performance as Ginger -- a teen put through belief-quaking emotional changes in dingy 1962 London.
Ginger and her bad-influence best pal Rosa (Alice Englert) are each rebelling against their unhappy mothers. One teen craves activist freedom, one craves domestic stability, and their intense closeness is tested during a time of intimate catastrophe and global near-catastrophe that has each of them flailing for a grown-up identity. It's quietly brutal stuff, beautifully acted by Fanning, Englert, Christina Hendricks and a word-twisting Alessandro Nivola.
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A-minus; Great Britain; 90 minutes [ official PIFF listing ]
Showtimes:
- 6 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 9, Whitsell
- 8:15 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 10, Regal Lloyd Center 10
'Ginger & Rosa' (The Oregonian, Friday, Feb. 8, 2013)
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