Mubi Monday: Saint Frances (2020)

An impressive feature debut from director Alex Thompson, helped enormously by the script, which was written by lead actress Kelly O'Sullivan, Saint Frances is one of those films that could easily just disappear after garnering lots of praise and plaudits at various film festivals. I hope that doesn't happen though, and it may avoid that fate thanks to two external factors. One, Thompson and O'Sullivan seem to have impressed people with their next collaboration, Ghostlight. Two, the main themes of the film, which intelligently explores the reality of motherhood, the issue of female bodily autonomy, and the choices made by people as they prepare to be "the responsible adult" in day to day life.

O'Sullivan plays Bridget, a young woman in her early thirties who doesn't really have a plan for her life. She ends up hooking up with a young man named Jace (Max Lipchitz), which leads to an unwanted pregnancy. Quickly deciding that she needs an abortion, Bridget does what needs done and tries to move on with her life. But Jace seems to want more than just a casual thing, her body is releasing more blood than it should, and she's due to become quite stressed when employed as a nanny by Maya (Charin Alvarez) and Annie (Lily Mojekwu). Their young daughter, Frances (Ramona Edith Williams), proves to be quite a handful, but also helps Bridget to reconsider her own approach to things.

Low-key and delicate, that's how best to describe this. It has the obvious moments that show Bridget learning to be a better nanny to young Frances, but it also spends just as much time showing Bridget struggling to navigate her way through territory that everyone assumes you should already be prepared to handle by the time you leave higher education (don't worry younglings, that is very rarely the case). You get awkwardness, you get mistakes made that may have you wanting to shout advice at our lead, and you get the expected strengthening of bonds as Maya, Annie, and Frances grow more used to having Bridget in their lives. This is a film that meets expectations, but it also does enough in one or two moments to subvert those same expectations, especially in a third act that should leave everyone glowing on the inside and smiling on the outside.

Thompson doesn't bother with too many unnecessary tricks. His direction is straightforward, allowing the performances room to breathe as everyone gets a fair and equally-impactful amount of the screenplay to work with. O'Sullivan has laid the groundwork, and brilliantly, which leaves Thompson in the position of just having to avoid ruining it. Thankfully, he handles the material with due diligence.

The acting isn't quite on par with the quality of the writing, but it's all good enough. O'Sullivan is, yet again, the star, and not just because of her being in the lead role. She's very easy to keep rooting for, even when making the kind of horrible choices many of us can recognise from our own checkered pasts, and  somehow manages to play up her youthful ignorance without making you want to give her a damn good shake. Lipchitz is also great, but is often sidelined in favour of the more revelatory relationship that Bridget ends up in with young Frances, and both Alvarez and Mojekwu do well in roles that need a warmth underneath the apparent coolness and restraint that they present for most of the movie. As for Williams (billed here with as the hyphenated Edith-Williams), she's cute and good, although, oddly enough, it takes a while for her to feel as natural and authentic onscreen as her adult co-stars.

I would happily rewatch this any time, and I highly recommend it to everyone able to track it down, but I am equally keen to see what is next from Thompson and O'Sullivan (but mainly O'Sullivan, who seems to be a considerable talent that other film fans should keep very much on their radar). As Saint Frances proves, she's bloody fantastic. I'm not sure that pun was in good taste, but I metaphorically ran out of the road while still driving this review towards some unknown destination.

8/10

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