A Little Princess (1995 film)

Originally Written and Posted at Epinions.com on 7/9/04 w/ Additional Edits & Revisions.

Based on the children's story by Frances Hodgson Burnett, A Little Princess is the story of an imaginative little girl who is sent to live at an all-girls school in NYC while her father goes to war during World War I. When her father has gone missing, she is forced to endure the cruelty of her headmistress as she turns to her imagination for comfort. Directed by Alfonso Cuaron and screenplay by Richard LaGravenese and Elizabeth Chandler, the film is a different take on the story that harkens more towards imaginative scenes and fantasy. Starring Liesel Matthes, Vanessa Lee Chester, Liam Cunningham, Eleanor Bron, Rusty Schwimmer, Arthur Malet, and a special appearance from Vincent Schiavelli. A Little Princess is a majestic and charming film from Alfonso Cuaron.

It's 1914 India as a 10-year old girl named Sara Crewe (Liesel Matthews) is telling a story about a prince who saves a princess from a multi-headed monster to an Indian boy. When her widowed father (Liam Cunningham) reveals he has to report to the British army for World War I, the two sail to New York City to live at an all-girls school her mother used to go. At their arrival, they meet the school's headmistress Miss Minchin (Eleanor Bron) where Sara learns to live by Minchin's strict rules and wear green dresses like the other students. With her father gone, Sara tries to get accustomed to Minchin's rules while dealing with the snotty Lavinia (Taylor Fry). Yet, Sara was able to befriend the insecure Ermengarde (Heather DeLoach), Minchin's sister/assistant Amelia (Rusty Schwimmer), the young black child-maid Becky (Vanessa Lee Chester) where she wins over Ermengarde and Becky with her imaginative stories. Though she misses her father who couldn't attend parents day, she was able to have a birthday party with her classmates until a mysterious man named Mr. Barrow (Vincent Schiavelli) reveals to Miss Minchin that Sara's father is missing and is reportedly dead.

With her father's assets gone and won't be able to pay for Sara's tuition, Sara is forced to work as a maid like Becky while living in the attic. With Miss Minchin also taking away Sara's locket, that carries the picture of her mother, Sara endures the cruelty of servitude as she clings to her magical imagination with help from her neighbor's servant Ram Dass (Errol Sitahal) whose master Charles Randolph (Arthur Malet) is dealing with his son's disappearance in the war. Despite the cruelty she endures from Miss Minchin, Sara is able to maintain her imagination as she tells stories to Becky as Ermengarde and other classmates secretly visits to hear stories. While also maintaining her compassion towards others as well as telling stories, she learns that a mysterious man has entered the Randolph home blindfolded as he has no idea who he is. With Ermengarde and other classmates deciding to help Sara retrieve her locket, Sara also helps out Amelia out to escape from her domineering sister to be with the milkman. Still, Miss Minchin's suspicions are risen as she tries to punish Sara only for Sara to defy her again as she decides to escape for all the little princesses in the school.

While the screenplay by Richard LaGravenese and Elizabeth Chandler is formulaic to older audiences, it isn't for children as it does more what is expected in a story that is about imagination and bringing hope to others in the darkest circumstances. While the character development is fine-tuned, the only minor flaw in character development is of Miss Minchin where the writers don't do enough to understand why she is so cruel to children as there could be more to her. Then again, kids don't care if its one dimensional as long as she makes an eerie presence. If the screenplay works fairly well in its story, carrying it to its imagination is director Alfonso Cuaron. Cuaron's vast, eye-wielding vision definitely brings magic and life in its story sequences of Sara's stories while the looks of 1914 New York City and India are captured gloriously with his wide-camera shots and slow movements that really encompasses the grandeur of its beauty.

Helping Cuaron with that look is his longtime cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki whose Oscar-nominated vision really brings life to the story's imaginative tone. One of the best cinematographers in the industry, Lubezki brings in all these sorts of wild, kaleidoscopic colors in the film's exotic Indian scenes while capturing a sea, greenish color to New York City while bringing a lot of tone and subtlety to make the film feel like a children's story that helps encompass the imagination of its viewers. Helping Lubezki and Cuaron in capturing their imaginative vision is production designer Robert W. Welch III, set designer Cheryl Carasik, and art director Thomas A. Duffield in bringing an intimate, restrained look to Minchin's house and 1914s NYC while adding more color in the exotic story sequences and Ram Dass' Indian look that is filled with shiny colors in which Welch and Carasik received Oscar nods for art direction.

Judianna Makovsky really shines in the film's costume designs with its detailed, greenish look of the girls' dresses while helming a tight, black-colored look to Minchin and a colorful, shiny look to the Ram Dass and characters of the Indian stories that Sara tells. Film composer Patrick Doyle help brings a wonderful, sweeping film score that is filled with lush, grand orchestral arrangements and dreamy textures that is enchanting in its tone and innocence.

The film's casting couldn't have been more perfect while Eleanor Bron's role of Miss Minchin was underwritten, she is excellent in her strict, uptight performance that serves as a perfect nemesis for young little girls. Rusty Schwimmer doesn't have much to do in her small role as Minchin's sister but shines when she expresses some freedom with the young girls while she brings depth in a scene with Liesel Matthews. Errol Sitahal brings a wonderful presence, as Ram Dass while Arthur Malet is sympathetic brilliant as Charles Randolph with Vincent Schiavelli in a great cameo as Mr. Burrows. Liam Cunningham is the film's best adult performance as Sara's father whose spirit is carried for his love for his daughter while he plays another role as the prince in Sara's stories.

The heart of the film truly belongs to the younger cast where all the actors perform very naturally and without trying to overact or do anything. Taylor Fry is wonderful as the snotty Lavinia while Heather DeLoach is lovely as Ermengarde whose character develops from a bullied girl to a girl with flowing confidence. Vanessa Lee Chester is the film's best supporting performance as the young black servant Becky where she doesn't speak for a while but once she's given new shoes, she shines as a girl who believes in magic and a world where she isn't oppressed. The film's most radiant performance is Liesel Matthews as Sara with her free-spirit attitude and natural approach to acting where we believe she's playing a child and not acting like one.

A Little Princess is a rich and spectacular film from Alfonso Cuaron. Featuring a superb ensemble cast and dazzling visual work that includes Emmanuel Lubezki's rapturous cinematography. The film is truly a divine and engaging visual feast backed by a story that does more than what is expected for a family film. Notably as it revolves around a young girl trying to bring hope to other people through imagination where the real world doesn't have to be so grim. In the end, A Little Princess is an extraordinary film from Alfonso Cuaron.

Alfonso Cuaron Films: Solo Con Tu Pareja - Great Expectations (1998 film) - Y Tu Mama Tambien - Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban - Children of Men - Gravity - Roma (2018 film) - The Auteurs #11: Alfonso Cuaron

© thevoid99 2012

The Ballad of Jack & Rose

Originally Written and Posted at Epinions.com 6/25/06 w/ Additional Edits & Revisions.

After the success of her 2002 independent masterpiece Personal Velocity, Rebecca Miller lived up to her talents as not just a director but as a writer as she is the daughter of the legendary playwright Arthur Miller. While taking a break with her real-life husband and actor Daniel Day-Lewis and their children, Miller was asked to help write the screenplay for the play Proof for director John Madden. That same time, Miller was working on a new original script which was then titled The Rose & the Snake about a reclusive father and his daughter whose isolated lifestyle changes as he finds himself dying and inviting a new girlfriend which changes their relationship. Miller then chose to re-title the film in tune with her own plot entitled The Ballad of Jack & Rose.

Written and directed by Miller, The Ballad of Jack & Rose is about a young woman's relative world of isolation is changed when she's exposed to the world outside of the island she lives with her father. With her own father dying and seeking companionship, the relationship of the father and daughter disintegrates as their own home is being threatened by progress. Starring Miller's husband Daniel Miller and young actress Camilla Belle in their respective title roles along with Catherine Keener, Paul Dano, Ryan McDonald, Susanna Thompson, Beau Bridges, Jason Lee, and Jena Malone. The Ballad of Jack & Rose is a poignant, coming-of-age story from Rebecca Miller.

Rose (Camilla Belle) is a 16-year old child who lives in an island with her hippie father Jack (Daniel Day-Lewis) as they live in complete isolation from the world. It's an ideal world for the young Rose and her father until they're faced by the destruction of nearby wetlands for a housing development project led by a contractor named Marty (Beau Bridges). The timing is worse as Jack is falling ill from heart disease as Rose couldn't bear a life without her father as Jack sails to the mainland to meet with his former girlfriend Kathleen (Catherine Keener). Kathleen agrees to move with him as she takes her two teenage sons in Thaddius (Paul Dano) and Rodney (Ryan McDonald) with her despite Rose's reluctance.

While Rose enjoys the company of Rodney, Thaddius wanders around to find adventure as Rose is uncomfortable about her father's relationship with Kathleen. After asking Rodney to cut her hair, she tries to deal with the new people at her home while a florist in Gray (Jason Lee) visits to tell Jack about what Marty is trying to do. When a friend of Rodney in Red Berry (Jena Malone) arrives to visit, Rose's interest with sex starts to increase as she saw Red and Thaddius making out. Later on, Rose asks Thaddius to sleep with her in order to get her father's attention for the changes that is happening. Jack learns what happen as he wants Thaddius out as Rose holds an old hippie party with Thaddius, Rodney, and Red that unravels with Jack's anger. Rose leaves as Jack is alone dealing with Kathleen as he realizes that his new experiment as failed. After finding Rose, Jack decides to meet with Marty where Jack would make a drastic decision that would ultimately change Rose's young life.

While the film isn't perfect due to some of the 1960s hippie ideology and how it clashes against 1980s capitalism. Rebecca Miller does create a compelling, emotional coming-of-age story about a young girl being introduced to a new world that is foreign to her while dealing with the decay of her own upbringing. While the story does seem somewhat inspired by her own relationship with her own father and playwright Arthur Miller, who died shortly after the film's premiere at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. It's also a story about a relationship between father and daughter that gets a little dangerous and nearly leans the world of incest in the way Rose cares for Jack. Particularly in the way Kathleen sees their relationship and how Rose reacts to her since Kathleen is afraid of Rose's fear of the world outside of her commune.

Miller’s structure really brings out a simple idea of revealing the life of Jack and Rose in the first act and the arrival of Kathleen and her sons in the second, and its aftermath in the third. Miller's work as a storyteller is also done very well as a director since she did nearly the entire film on location in Prince Edwards Island in Canada. Miller chooses to observe the development of not just the film's major characters but the surroundings they're in. While the film does lose some insight onto the political aspect of the film, it doesn't stray away from its main story as Miller succeeds in bringing a wonderful transcending, imaginative film.

Helping Miller in her vision is her longtime collaborator in cinematographer Ellen Kuras. Kuras' photography is filled with dreamy textures of exterior colors and interior settings filled with intimate lighting on some sequences. One scene in the party owes to the psychedelic world with images of 8mm film stock that shows the contrasting world of the 60s/70s and the 80s. Kuras' photography is truly a marvel as brings a wonderful visual scope to Miller's worldly setting. Production designer Mark Ricker does a wonderful job in creating the contrast of the intimate, worldly area of Jack and Rose in contrast to the world outside of their commune which is more mechanical and glossy. Costume designer Jennifer Von Mayrhauser also does great job in creating the clothing for the film, notably the working class style of Catherine Keener's Kathleen and the more carefree world of Camilla Belle's Rose.

Editor Sabine Hoffman does some wonderful cutting in giving the film a nice, leisurely pace while doing some fine cutting to convey the surroundings of the characters. Composer Michael Rohatyn brings a style of folk and piano style music for its score that also includes instrumental cuts of classical music and jazz guitar of Leo Kotte. Most of the film's soundtrack includes some great music with tracks from Bob Dylan, John Mayall, a lot of 60s and 70s music, and two variation of Screamin' Jay Hawkins' classic song I Put A Spell On You by Creedence Clearwater Revival and Nina Simone. Both of them are amazing to hear.

The film's casting is wonderfully inspiring since many of the actors are there to tell a story and play interesting characters. Susanna Thompson is good in her small role as Marty's wife Miriam who welcomes Jack and Rose in a crucial final scene. Noted indie actors Jason Lee and Jena Malone also create small, memorable performances in their respective role as the calm, sensitive Gray and the energetic, wild Red Berry. Ryan McDonald is excellent as the more sensitive, mature Rodney while Paul Dano brings more comedic angst to his role as the wandering Thaddius. Beau Bridges is great in a complex role as Marty, a man who might seem like a greedy businessman but is someone who can't help but be a part of progress as he plays his role in a very sensitive, restrained approach. The best supporting performance easily is Catherine Keener as Kathleen who adores Jack while understands Rose's reaction about her moving in. Keener brings a lot to the role as a woman who has a hard time raising her sons while dealing with the family problems of Jack and Rose as Keener gives a great performance.

Camilla Belle delivers a real breakthrough performance as Rose with her amazing beauty and range in the display of emotions. Belle brings a lot to the role of Rose as a young girl who doesn't understand much about the outside world while she develops from a young, idealized girl to a woman who is forced to realize that her father can't be here all the time. Belle also has great chemistry with the veteran Day-Lewis as the two are wonderful to watch. Daniel Day-Lewis is also great as Jack by giving a performance full of complexity in its physicality and range of emotions. Day-Lewis plays his role with such fraternal comfort that he is truly believable as a caring father who is filled with guilt and pain while trying to do what is right for Rose. It's a magnificent performance from an actor who has rarely given an adequate performance as he proves to be a great muse for his wife.

The Ballad of Jack & Rose is a phenomenal film from Rebecca Miller. With great work from her film crew, notably Ellen Kuras, and the cast, notably Daniel Day-Lewis, Camilla Belle, and Catherine Keener. Anyone into Miller's work will definitely enjoy this film despite a few flaws while anyone who loves Daniel Day-Lewis will see his brilliance as an actor. The film should also be noted for the talents of the young Camilla Belle who proves that she can act with an actor as brilliant as Daniel Day-Lewis. In the end, for a strong film about father/daughter relationship should check out The Ballad of Jack & Rose.

Rebecca Miller Films: (Angela) - Personal Velocity: Three Portraits - The Private Lives of Pippa Lee - Maggie's Plan - Arthur Miller: Writer

© thevoid99 2011