What Maisie Knew

I had always thought that divorce and child custody battles started sometime around the 1930s, so it was quite a revelation to learn that this sort of thing was a feature of Victorian society in 1897, the year James's novel was published. Nonetheless, I suppose that using the law to beat up your ex was confined to the upper strata of society until around 1950 — the year legal aid first became available in the UK. Or perhaps 1963 — the year sex was invented, according to Philip Larkin. Anyway, we had a discussion about the differences between the novel and the film — but as none of us had actually read the book it was not a very well-informed debate. Afterwards, I found a quite detailed comparison in this review on the BFI web site: Film of the week: What Maisie Knew. And as the book is out of copyright, you can read the original for nothing if you download a free e-book from Amazon or Gutenberg.

Alan Partridge is Steve Coogan's most stupid and self-obsessed character, but, even so, there's a little part of me that quite likes a little part of him and cringes in sympathy at his worst moments. But Coogan presents Maisie's Dad as such a monstrous character that I couldn't find a single redeeming feature. Likewise, Julianne Moore as Maisie's Mum. We all want to be liked — actors especially, I suppose — so I think it must take a good one to portray somebody so dreadful. With Maisie played unselfconsciously by six-year-old Onata Aprile, there were, I thought, three excellent performances.

Feedback score was 78%:

A	Maisie was the star of the film. She knew who loved her. A disturbing film in many ways but well done.
A	Glad Maisie had some sense because her parents certainly had none.
A	Dear me — that poor little girl always watching and listening. A remarkable performance. Will now read the original book.
B	Amazing acting.
B	Interesting focus on the child's perspective. The contrast between the 'good guys' and the 'bad guys' was too extreme. Superb performance by Maisie.
B	Another amazing child performance — we have had a few this time.
B	BUT VERY SAD!
B	Too loud at first — upsetting but good.
C
C	Couldn't hear anything!
C	The sound quality was poor. Difficult to make out the dialogue. You cannot believe that there are so self-centred people to ignore their own child.
C	Sound quality very poor — missed a lot of the dialogue. Maisie was amazingly unscathed by life style of parents/step parents.

On-line:

Rotten Tomatoes - 80% Audience feedback
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/what_maisie_knew_2012/

Philip French, Observer "Maisie goes to Manhattan in this fine modern-day adaptation of Henry James's novel of irresponsible parenting"
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/aug/25/what-maisie-knew

Time Out, London (4 stars) "almost unwatchably perceptive about dysfunctional families"
http://www.timeout.com/london/film/what-maisie-knew-2012

IMDB - 7.5 out of 10.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1932767/

BFI Film of the week:
Film of the week: What Maisie Knew