She Came to Me

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I never pass up on any movie featuring Anne Hathaway. I love her in films and she has great acting skills. Then I see this poster that displays not only her face but also Peter Dinklage and Marisa Tomei! I knew I had to see it. The film is labelled a romance comedy but after seeing it, I'm not convinced about this label. One thing I love about it is that it's not predictable!

She Came To Me (2023) is an American romance drama that begins with a successful opera composer, Steven Lauddem (played by Peter Dinklage), who has writer's block and the deadline for a show is close by. He's married to his psychiatrist, Patricia (played by Anne Hathaway), who is a clean freak. They have a son from Patricia's first marriage.

https://youtu.be/LniY5Q2hvU4?si=YGfRaDmHDSuHCwgj^{_{Source: YouTube}}

Seeing Steven's frustration about his writer's block, Patricia persuades him to walk their dog, 'get lost, meander and interact with a stranger'. He does this and ends up in an empty bar. While ordering a drink and chatting with the bartender, a woman joins him. They end up in her tug boat and they sleep together. Fast forward, Steven's new show at the opera is a retelling of his tryst with the boat captain.

Steven's family is happy that the creative block phase is over but the boat captain, Katrina (played by Marisa Tomei), starts to stalk Steven while he hides from her to save his marriage. Will Patricia find out about her husband's new muse?

Review

The film is beautifully performed and authentic but it's not perfect. The plot is brilliant—a popular opera composer suffers from writer's block and at the persuasion of his wife, goes out, speaks to a stranger (and more) and gets inspired for his next piece! This is compelling but the subplots thrown in somehow derail the audience's attention from the main plot. It's like being thrown around in an unsteady boat on a tumultuous sea. Multiple significant things are happening at once and they are all geared towards the subject of love.

Themes of love, romance, and authenticity are explored in this film. A wife doubts her interest in marriage and opts to become a nun, two teenagers in love decide whether or not to tie the knot to evade criminal charges, and a husband fights his feelings for another even though it sparks his creativity. These subplots engage the attention of every viewer and we are thrown in all directions, fighting to hold onto something. Thankfully, the director, Rebecca Miller, resolves them satisfactorily.

The only part I would fault this movie for is the impression that mental illness is normal. Anne Hathaway in recent years has been portraying characters that suffer from mental illness. I miss her lively self in films like Ella Enchanted, The Princess Diaries, The Devil Wears Prada, Ocean 8 and more. Her performance in this film is good but it includes a depiction of a woman who doubts herself, her life, and her marriage and eventually loses it (strips naked) in front of her patient. I think I'm getting tired of seeing her in these kinds of roles.

Peter Dinklage's acting as the shy celebrity opera composer is charismatic and he impressively embodies his character. His chemistry with Marisa Tomei is a little shaky but it's not bad.

The cinematography is great and the pacing is good. The scenes featuring the opera productions are amazing to watch.

Overall, She Came To Me is a fine weekend watch. It's different and quirky in an interesting way but very relatable. I'll give it 3.3 stars out of 5.

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Posted using CineTV

She came to me, it arrived like this, by chance, like an unexpected event, like an inspiration for writing a show during a walk.

Thus comes life that changes on any given day. Thus they arrive, unexpectedly, at the height of emptiness and darkness, second chances, lives that meet, intersect, change, make mistakes, learn, improve and grow. With the risk, always around the corner, of forgetting who we are or who we have been and perhaps the luck of one day finding someone who reminds us of it.

The writing and direction of Rebecca Miller, an excellent cast (Peter Dinklage, Anne Hathaway, Marisa Tomei), the music of Bryce Dessner (the National), Alexandre Desplat and Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa on the closing credits make for a romantic comedy, a refined film about second chances, about changes and true feelings without sentimentality, about relationships that sink us and those that save us, about everyday life that nourishes the extraordinary and about the highest and noblest art of letting go of the life that happens and of letting ourselves go shattered, into pieces, if necessary, to find ourselves whole perhaps in other forms but remaining faithful to ourselves, always. Because, as the Boss sings, at least "if it isn't love it will always be more than we had planned".

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