Frances Ha

a film by Noah Baumbach

Frances: Do I look old to you?
Benji: No. Yes. How old?
Frances: Older than I am. Older than twenty-seven.
Benji: No. Twenty-seven is old, though.

Is it? Is it? The year I turned 27, I left my home country and moved to Italy. (Now I am twice that age, so I was leaving abroad, so to speak, for the most of my life. Whatever the words “home” and “abroad” mean.) Maybe it was not the happiest year of my life, but, when I think about it, surely the most strange, amazing, difficult, promising, frustrating and ultimately rewarding one. I didn’t feel old. Or wise. Well. Maybe a little wiser than when I was 26.

Frances: What do you do?
Andy: Eh?
Frances: What do you do? It’s such a stupid question, I thought I’d ask it.
Andy: Oh, no. I’m a lawyer. What do you do?
Frances:That’s such a stupid question! Just kidding. Um, it’s kind of hard to explain.
Andy: Because what you do is complicated?
Frances: Um, because I don’t really do it.

Greta Gerwig shines in this charming and unexpectedly subtle comedy. To quote its heroine, it’s kind of hard to explain what it is about and why it is a comedy. Watch it, and you’ll see.

Ah, to be 27 again.