Ginger & Rosa

Elle Fanning gives an arresting performance in this bracingly original coming-of-age drama from writer/director Sally Potter (Orlando, Yes). She plays Ginger, a British teenager growing up in 1962, whose adolescent troubles are exacerbated by the looming threat of nuclear war and, more directly, by her parents. Dad (Alessandro Nivola) is a radical academic; mum (Mad Men's Christina Hendricks) a one-time painter, resentful of her wifely duties. Ginger finds escape in minor adventures with best friend Rosa (Alice Englert) - until Rosa takes a romantic interest in Ginger's dad, which he reciprocates. As a budding social activist, Ginger tries to move on, but, as Potter reveals, free thinking sometimes leads to dark, restrictive places. The changing role of women is also an underlying theme in a many-layered but otherwise simply told story. And while it remains one of Potter's more accessible offerings, the subtle, handheld camerawork sets it apart from more conventional period dramas.