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Louise, an aimless, 28 year-old Brooklynite, recently single, sort of a musician, depressed without admitting to it, drunkenly falls while doing something stupid and breaks her hip. This lands her in a physical therapy ward full of people twice her age. There, she meets Antonina - a cranky elderly Polish woman, who speaks no English. Louise gets a job caring for her. Neither woman loves the arrangement but it’s time to face the truth about aging. We all have to grow up sometime.
This wasn't the most original movie ever but it was still a pretty sweet comedy drama❤️🩹. Karen Gillan & Małgorzata Zajączkowska both give amazing performances🩼.
Definitely deserved more attention because it seems to have gone under the radar for some reason🤷♀️.
One more movie that confirms what I always thought – Karen Gillan has an authentic transparency to conduct humor with her gestures. She always brings something genuine and grounded to the characters she impersonates. Late Bloomers took advantage of that, making the movie much more companionable.
The whole main story isn’t necessarily special but the simplicity and the sweetness of the interactions between Louise and Antonina are winsome enough to evoke a concern for the subplot about Louise’s mother. (And yes, I did get emotional during the final song. Great part from Gillan).
It starts with this idea that a grumpy old person shouldn’t deserve a free pass if they are obnoxious. Then we learn our…
I didn't really like Late Bloomers. While I understand what the film is aiming for, it just didn't work for me. The execution definitely falls short. It's a story that's been told better before. However, it does have its moments, and I was engaged at the start. It seems to have all the right elements, but it never convinced me of its central relationship. I couldn't get completely invested because the characters weren't as fleshed out as I expected, and I didn't like them despite finding some relatable aspects. Most of the jokes fell flat, and the movie dragged on. It started off strong but became more tiresome as it progressed. It wasn't terrible, but I expected much more from it.
This movie evidently reinforces Karen Gillan’s versatility, however, as much as it is a sweet story, it was not as engaging as others have done with similar plots.
There used to be this commercial for E-Trade or something like it that my mom loved, which showed a person on a therapist's couch in a session with a therapist that starts to speak unsubtitled Polish. The commercial's tagline was like, "Get a broker who speaks your language," but as a Polish-speaker, my mom thought it was hilarious because she understood that the therapist was saying, "There's no ink in this pen. We can't start this session until I get a new pen."
Watching Late Bloomers gave me a similar feeling of being in on a joke that much of the audience was not. Whenever Antonina would repeat something Louise said, but in Polish, or say something insulting that slips…
Perfect mothers day viewing for those of us with complicated relationships with our mothers.
Authentic, fractured, great performances. Q & A with the director after and someone in the audience asked about the blurb for the movie on the SIFF website because he loved the quote from the book referenced in it- and it was the blurb I wrote 😅 small world.
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