Ginger and Rosa are young, teenage girls and the bests of friends. Ginger (Elle Fanning) loves laughing, sometimes at virtually anything or indeed everything. Rosa (newcomer Alice Englert) likes boys and indeed boys seem to like her. Both also like being picked up by random strangers and driven to obscure locations.
Not so different from many modern young girls then? Well, yes and no. For texting and underage drinking do not feature in this at all. For this is October 1962 and Ginger has two big worries. One is her fear of nuclear war: not an unreasonable concern as the Cuban Missile Crisis is poised to bring humanity closer to nuclear oblivion than ever before or since. Another issue is her academic father Roland (Alessandro Nivola), a bohemian type with a liberal and “progressive attitude towards sex. And true to form, Roland the rat is starting to show an interest in her best friend Rosa. Soon the relationship between all three will be pushed to the brink.
Although not tremendously convincing as a natural redhead, US actress Fanning is a convincing Brit: her onscreen mother played by Mad Men star Christina Hendricks has this exactly the other way round, sometimes struggling to convince with uniquely English turns of phrase like “bugger off then to your bloody boat. However, with strong support from an excellent Anglo-American cast which includes Timothy Spall, Annette Bening and Oliver Platt, this is pleasing enough. However, unlike the anti-nuclear protesters featured throughout, the film seems unlikely to change the world.
Overall Verdict: Well acted drama which recaptures the perilous October of 1962.
Special Features:
Cast Interviews
Interview with Director Sally Potter
Reviewer: Chris Hallam