I’m still all about Saoirse Ronan being my personal pick for her absolutely beautiful performance in Brooklyn, and that kinda made me root for her winning this year despite the fact that I haven’t even watched her film. I’m not going to say that I am a huge fan of hers, but at the same time, there’s no denying that she’s a luminous talent who can elevate her films, even in small parts in films like The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Which makes me feel a little sore about that fact that I found Lady Bird slightly disappointing. Frankly, I couldn’t really get into this film and I found it rather sluggish despite the short screen time. Its strengths, however, lies in the way it captures the complicated relationship between Lady Bird (Saoirse Ronan) and her mom Marion (played beautifully by Laurie Metcalf). The scenes with Kyle (Timothée Chalamet), however, were the weakest imo. I get that they are trying to portray the pretentious, “bad-ass wannabe” phase that all teenagers go through, but I’m not going to lie, I found those scenes really boring. I know there were only a few of them, and yet I felt 1 scene alone would have been enough to capture the true nature of that relationship. There were a lot of scenes I really liked; the scenes with her father, and her best friend were truly terrific, but as a whole the movie doesn’t really stay with me.
Having said all that, Ronan’s performance as Lady Bird is excellent. To be honest, I can’t find anything wrong about her performance, and to her credit, I am actually amazed at how she manages to make Lady Bird interesting to watch although she’s frankly a rather annoying character. Her luminous presence works wonders again, and I just cannot take my eyes off her, even during the scenes where she’s unbelievably rude to her mother. She captures the character’s growing up arc perfectly too, from her naive pretentiousness to her realisation about what truly matters in life.
It’s a coming of age story that has been explored many times, but to Ronan’s credit, she never makes it cliche or stereotypical. I think her attention to detail as a performer is what makes this performance work; she captures the conflict between hating and loving her mom, and that’s what makes their scenes so dynamic and moving. Actually, every interaction in this movie is well explored by Ronan, even her brief relationships with the pretentious Kyle and the shallow Jenna. She uses them to build up Lady Bird’s growth as a character, and I think that’s what works terrifically.
As a whole, there isn’t a false note in this performance, which is something I really appreciated. It could have been such a stereotypical performance with eye-rolling moments, but I think Ronan grounds it and plays it with total truth. The problem, which probably in part lies with me, is that this performance just doesn’t get me totally excited. Like, I have nothing against it, and I truly respect it, but I’m not going to lie when I say that I don’t think it is going to stay with me for too long. A large part of it has got to do with the the writing and the film though – it’s a character that I’ve seen too many times, and the film isn’t one I’m crazy about. Still, I do wholeheartedly support her Golden Globe win, as I think it is truly deserved. It is also an extremely deserved Oscar nomination, but I won’t go beyond that. 4/5, though leaning towards 4.5.
Film – 3/5
Laurie Metcalf – 4.5/5
Filmfreak! 