A composer who suffers writer’s block rediscovers his passion after an adventurous one-night stand.
Pam says
There are two words that come to mind to succinctly describe the film SHE CAME TO ME…delightfully bizarre!
An opera composer Steven played by Peter Dinklage, has hit a wall in his career…writer’s block, if you will. His wife, Patricia played by Anne Hathaway is on odd duck whose talented and brilliantly gifted son Julian (Evan Ellison) is madly in love with the cleaning lady’s daughter Tereza (Harlow Jane). Steven, in the hopes of breaking his composing block, is sent out to walk the dog…direct orders from his therapist wife whose idiosyncrasies are a character study by themselves. Steven, dejectedly obliging, walks the dog right past a bar which seems to beckon him in, like a siren’s song. And singing that song is tug boat captain Katrina played by Marisa Tomei.
If you think this sounds like a Shakespearean play, you’re not far off! Once we’ve been introduced to all the characters and Steven finds a muse with Katrina, none of their lives will ever be the same and eventually they will all intersect.
This is sublimely clever! Never did I anticipate where the story was going or where it would eventually land! With Steven’s illicit and supposed one-night stand with Katrina backfiring, Tereza’s admission of guilt to her stenographer and lawyer-wanna-be step- father, and Patricia’s obsession with the Catholic religion and the convent, the story beautifully spins out of control with utmost grace and elegance.
Each of the characters have their own story to tell, but at the center of it is Steven and his opera. Never does the film get bogged down with others’ details, but still finds a way to weave these important stitches into the tapestry of the story. This is a surprising gem that had me laughing, crying, angry, and most importantly, loving who these characters became.
3 1/2 stars
Chuck says:
Rarely am I at a loss as far as predicting where a film is going. One of the delightful – at times, frustrating – things about Rebecca Miller’s “She Came To Me” is that for the first half-hour, I was completely unsure how its two desperate storylines were going to converge. Much to my delight, the way in which they ultimately overlapped, while a bit contrived, resulted in an inspired third-act to a story that manages to be as ultimately moving as it is quirky.
Steven (Peter Dinklage) is a composer whose last opera bombed five years ago, leading to him suffering a nervous breakdown. He sought help and married his therapist Patricia (Anne Hathaway) but he’s still mired in self-doubt, suffering from writer’s block. He has some hard deadlines coming up regarding this new production but he has yet to find inspiration. Ultimately, it comes from the most unexpected of places. Wandering into a seedy bar one day, he meets Katrina (Marisa Tomei), a tugboat captain, who has an unique problem. She claims to be addicted to romance and immediately sets her eyes on Steven. He reluctantly goes back to her boat and after an ill-advised dalliance, leaves. He regrets his actions but suddenly he has an idea for his opera, making an altered version of Katrina his subject.
Meanwhile, there’s tension brewing in the Ruffa household. Trey (Brian D’arcy James) is concerned about his stepdaughter’s (Harlow Jane) involvement with an older peer. His wife Magdalena (Joanna Kulig), a cleaning woman who attends to Katrina and Steven’s home, is worried about her husband’s zealous interest in all of this.
Each of these storylines is engaging, yet they seem more than a bit disjointed at times. Still, the work by Dinklage, Hathaway and Tomei is inspired and effective, the trio eliciting laughs throughout, their characters’ eccentric behavior providing one surprise after another.
While the film’s theme takes awhile to emerge, once it does you realize Miller has masterfully constructed this tale of love and understanding that proves a person’s muse can come from the most unexpected of places and there’s just no explaining the lengths we will go to in pursuing it.
3 1/2 Stars.
