Saoirse Ronan as Lady Bird from Sacramento, California
By Moira Sullivan
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| Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf in LadyBird |
Saoirse Ronan gives an unforgettable performance as a young Sacramento woman from valley Catholic high school about to graduate and go on to college. The film directed and written by Greta Gerwig is nominated for best picture and screenplay at the Golden Globes next month. Lady Bird film has inventive and realistic dialogue with an engaging plot development. Credit must be given to the outstanding ensemble cast of the principle character Saoirse Ronan as Christine 'Lady Bird' McPherson, and Laurie Metcalf as Marion McPherson and Tracy Letts as Larry McPherson, Lady Bird’s parents. Both Ronan and Metcalf have received Golden Globe nominations for their acting roles. It is their relationship that provides a dramatic tension that gives the film its luster.
The opening scene shows Lady Bird and Marion on the way home from a trip where they were scouting colleges which demonstrates growing tension in their relationship. Pushed to the edge by her mother’s comments, Lady Bird ends her discussion by jumping out the car much to her mother’s horror. Only a broken arm to mend, this is a coming of age film for Lady Bird who is at odds with many of the values of her teachers and classmates except for her best friend.
The opening citation in the film from Joan Didion proclaims that anyone extolling the hedonism of California has not spent a Christmas in Sacramento. From the point of view of a Catholic high school, that is certainly the case but what is also obvious are the class differences of the students. Lady Bird’s father has just been left go of his job and her mother works as a nurse. The capital of California has the reputation of being out of step with the progressive nearby Bay Area and is regarded as provincial and claustrophobic. Lady Bird longs to escape from this and go to school back east, much to the dismay of her mother who wants her to live close by and attend a college in Davis renowned for animal husbandry.
Gerwig’s film is rich with these kinds of details and characters. that paint a colorful picture of the town and young girl trying to find her way. Lady Bird candidly wonders when would be the right time to engage in premarital sex and gets counsel from her mother. Her teachers try to guide her suggesting she try dramatic arts and also help her with her college applications with her aptitudes in mind. What the film foremost shows is despite her restlessness with being in a nuclear family which includes an adopted son and his girlfriend she still has fondness for Sacramento. Her brother’s bedroom is also the computer room that Lady Bird must share and certainly reveals how cramped her family’s living situation is. She aspires to live in a big house and even tells one of her classmates that she does.
The opening citation in the film from Joan Didion proclaims that anyone extolling the hedonism of California has not spent a Christmas in Sacramento. From the point of view of a Catholic high school, that is certainly the case but what is also obvious are the class differences of the students. Lady Bird’s father has just been left go of his job and her mother works as a nurse. The capital of California has the reputation of being out of step with the progressive nearby Bay Area and is regarded as provincial and claustrophobic. Lady Bird longs to escape from this and go to school back east, much to the dismay of her mother who wants her to live close by and attend a college in Davis renowned for animal husbandry.
Gerwig’s film is rich with these kinds of details and characters. that paint a colorful picture of the town and young girl trying to find her way. Lady Bird candidly wonders when would be the right time to engage in premarital sex and gets counsel from her mother. Her teachers try to guide her suggesting she try dramatic arts and also help her with her college applications with her aptitudes in mind. What the film foremost shows is despite her restlessness with being in a nuclear family which includes an adopted son and his girlfriend she still has fondness for Sacramento. Her brother’s bedroom is also the computer room that Lady Bird must share and certainly reveals how cramped her family’s living situation is. She aspires to live in a big house and even tells one of her classmates that she does.
Lady Bird is a feel-good feature with an actress turned director from Sacramento that has made an excellent second feature.
© 2017 - Moira Sullivan - Airdate 12/27/17
Movie Magazine International
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