Miss Marx

I could tell what they were trying to do with this film - what with the heavy and loud music and French filmmaking style, but it just didn't come together for me. Mostly, it was a quiet film, and then all of a sudden the music was hardcore and didn't fit at all. Think Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette, but not done well.

I like Romola Garai in everything she's done, and I didn't not like her in this, but it was just weak writing and editing and directing. The storyline was very choppy - I mean, in one scene she was led by a poor young boy to a poverty-stricken mother laying in filth with a newborn by her side, suffering with mastitis - then cut to her doing a love scene from A Doll's House. We don't find out how Eleanor M helped with the family, if at all. We never went back to it. It was a confusing couple of minutes that didn't tell me anything.

I found myself pausing the movie and referring to Wikipedia to fill in the blanks left by this movie. Not a thing you'd normally have to do if a biopic is made well, but something you want to do after it's finished so you can learn more about the subject because the film has instilled that interest.

Watch it, though, for Romola Garai - she's always great.