Movie Breakdown: I’m Your Woman (Noah)

Pre-Screening Stance:

Everything about this flick – the setting (late 70s small-town America), the cast (Rachel Brosnahan), the look (mooooody) – makes me excited. I’m excited.

Post-Screening Ramble:

In just about every gangster movie we watch as a male lead slowly climbs up the ladder of a criminal organization or as a male lead has to make terrible decisions to escape a bad choice he made. His wife, or girlfriend, or sister (or whatever role has been cobbled together for the female lead) is a side note, a symbol of family, or security, or someone to save or not to die for. I’m Your Woman subverts the genre. Rachel Brosnahan plays Jean, the wife of a small-town gangster. He disappears and her and her newborn child have to disappear from the men who are looking for them. Director Julia Hart excels at slowly unfolding the feminine point-of-view unseen in most gangster films. The movie, entirely told from Jean’s perspective, isn’t glamour and jewels (though a few moments remind us they exist on the periphery of Jean’s story), this is backwood hiding places and constant, nagging fear. Jean runs with Cal (Arinze Kene), a quiet, sensitive associate and though initially Hart plays like Jean and Cal might be a romantic pairing, Cal’s full story is much broader, and much more interesting. There’s a intentional lack of filling in every plot hole in this film and because Jean is so unaware of what the reality of her situation is, it firmly plants you in her shoes, scrabbling to figure out what’s happening and when the next domino will fall. Brosnahan is great in this film, the bluster and fragility she uses to bring Ms. Maisel to the screen, swallowed down so for much of the film that only the breakable aspects appear. But when Jean finally finds herself, and her strength, Brosnahan ably brings the transformation to life. The world of gangster flicks is full of puffed chests and cigarette smoke and it is more than time for a film to explore the other side. I’m Your Woman is very much that film.

One Last Thought:

The baby is this film is wildly adorable and seemingly as talented a baby actor as seen on film prior. There’s a few beats in these films where it looks like the kid was given a note by the director and he thought it over and then totally nailed it. Amazing.