Ginger & Rosa

Is there a movie where nuclear bombs aren't a metaphor for personal crisis? Certainly not Ginger & Rosa, the overreaching little film by Sally Porter. Ginger (Elle Fanning) is a redheaded teenager raised by a sorrowful mom and a peace activist dad in 1962 London. As Ginger and her best friend Rosa protest the growing Cuban Missile Crisis, she becomes drawn into her parent's crumbling marriage once Rosa starts taking an interest in her father. A compliment of actors, including Oliver Platt and Annette Bening, make use of a stilted script. Christina Hendricks does her best with an English accent as Ginger's put-upon mother. But it's Fanning's showcase. She sinks into her role in a way that allows Ginger to show her brazen intellectual ability while never hiding her emotional fragility. Sadly, there's a lot of film that goes around those performances, adding little and never building to much of a story. —Jacob Boon