K-SCORE: 77
Director: Scott McGehee
Based on: What Maisie Knew by Henry James
Starring: Julianne Moore, Alexander Skarsgard
Spoiler Level: Moderate
I watched What Maisie Knew despite the personal challenge of routinely spelling Maisie in such a way. It’s about a six-year-old girl caught in the middle of her parents custody battle. Both her mother and father hasten into other relationships and her stepmother Margo and stepfather Lincoln end up being the two adults that put Maisie first and therefore keep finding themselves in positions to take care of her. This inevitably leads to Margo and Lincoln getting together and becoming Maisie’s permanent caretakers. I really loved it from a largely selfish standpoint.
“you’d have to be cold as stone not to be upset by how often they literally move her around”
In the battle of nature versus nurture, I take the opposite stance of Christopher Walken’s character in Wedding Crashers that “nature always wins.” I hold to the belief that the person with the most love and time and resources to give a child is the one who should be the primary caretaker for that child. I greatly admire instances in life of successful adoptions or bonds between people who have no biological chain linking them together. Sadly I’ve seen way too many selfish parents out there, and am the kind of person who wishes we could save all the children born into bad situations for they didn’t ask to be brought into this world and certainly not with awful mothers and fathers. So I was on board.
“o the film’s credit, the mother and father are never completely villainized”
Partly I was just in the mood for a story like this when I watched it and partly I was charmed by Maisie’s sweetness. The film isn’t perfect. At times it’s a bit manipulative, everything falling into place for the good characters at just the right times so that they can be together and happy, but I didn’t mind too much. I could accept something a little unrealistic, maybe even a bit escapist, if it’s for the cause of helping a wonderful child and binding two young people in a romance because they found commonalities in their love for that child. It’s a heartwarming thing to think about. And to the film’s credit, the mother and father are never completely villainized or completely removed from the equation. They’re just inherently selfish people who end up having to accept a back seat to the people they’d brought into their lives who are actually willing to be selfless for the cause of raising Maisie.
If there’s a single stroke of artistic brilliance in the film it’s the choice to have all of the adult conflict overheard in the background while Maisie plays and learns in the way six-year-olds do in the foreground. This makes seeing her thrust in the middle of that all the more tragic; you’d have to be cold as stone not to be upset by how often they literally move her around, bouncing her between lives and locations until she settles into the careful arms of Margo and Lincoln.
What Maisie Knew bravely takes the stance that it’s not enough to just love your daughter (or son). You have to actually have the strength to put her above all other issues in your life.
I’m a particularly biased viewer for this one. I’m the kind of person that will always prioritize children and I had a Maisy of a different kind lying at my side all cuddly throughout.