The movie to see: ‘Frances Ha’

By Mad Dog
Published: May 20, 2013

After, try getting this woman out of your head. Her optimism, her love of her friend, her lack of filter — for most of the movie, these charm you. But there comes a moment when you lose patience with Frances. She’s no longer a young woman trying to find a place for herself in her own life, she’s a screw-up, a dingbat, a flop. How does she change, "grow up," become a new and better incarnation of the woman we loved in the beginning? That occurs off-screen. The movie is blighted by these two moments: the extra beat of bumbling, the absent beat of explication. But these are quibbles. "Frances Ha" is an affirmation and a delight. And the final 30 seconds are the most satisfying I’ve experienced in a movie theater in a long time.