Saint Frances (2020)
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Saint Frances Movie Review
Saint Frances is a 2020 indie drama film directed by Alex Thompson and starring Kelly O’Sullivan. It’s one of the best indies of the year.
After an abortion, a deadbeat nanny finds friendship with the 6-year-old she’s hired to watch. Yes, this is one of those movies that feature such a familiar premise that your eyes might be rolled at reading it, but you would be sorely mistaken not to check it out regardless. Yes, it sounds familiar and it is at first, but it becomes so deep and powerful as it goes along that it’s undoubtedly an excellent indie gem that needs more attention than it received.
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Bridget is a terrific, believable and relatable protagonist. This movie is what people would call a woman’s picture back in the day and it truly is all about women, but it develops them so well and the writing is so fantastic that anybody can enjoy it. Back to Bridget. Kelly O’Sullivan is the heart and soul of the movie and her performance is the best of the bunch, though everybody is great here. As a woman who just doesn’t know what she wants in her life in her thirties, the film deals through her with these crises that plague all young people, especially those who can’t quite manage to find a partner early on.
What particularly surprised me was its sophistication and its honesty. Rarely do you ever see parenthood tackled in such an honest manner, but here you get to see mothers as they truly are – flawed human beings who love their children, but are at times sick of them. The movie is too modern in a sense that it portrays motherhood as overly difficult, but still the entire question of whether or not you should even have children is powerfully explored here through many moving conversations.
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Bridget develops this clichéd, but still very emotional relationship with this young girl who is just adorable herself. There are many tender moments to be had with the two of them and the movie’s heart truly is huge. But I also really appreciated the lesbian couple whom she has to help. Both are very well realized and it was refreshing seeing a lesbian couple struggle with motherhood as you usually never see that portrayed. The movie was thus very realistic and it humanized all couples, including the lesbian ones.
Saint Frances is a very short movie that flies by how engaging it is. The pacing is excellent and the script is truly terrific. It manages to somehow enrich and lift a tired material into something truly deep and complex. The dialogue is undoubtedly the best aspect of the whole movie. There are so many really fantastic conversations throughout its short runtime with each and every character interaction being believable and most of the lines being impressively important thematically speaking.
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I did wish for a more male-inclusive film. The boyfriend of the protagonist is so sweet and caring that the movie’s treatment of him felt a bit unfair. The scenes between the two early on are wonderful and I wish that the film did not disregard him so cruelly later on. Still, the ending is quite moving and most of the movie was immensely enjoyable.
