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Fresh and Exciting

Absolutely the worst movie.

Absolutely Fantastic

In "Stephanie Daley," Tilda Swinton stars as Lydie Crane, a forensic psychologist in her final months of pregnancy. Despite her condition and the fact that she had a miscarriage less than a year earlier, Lydie agrees to take on the case of a teenaged girl named Stephanie Daley (Amber Tamblyn) who is accused of killing her newborn at childbirth.Written and directed by Hilary Brougher, "Stephanie Daley" is a human drama wrapped inside a legal whodunit (it's sort of like "Agnes of God" minus the nuns' habits and beatific visions). Set in scenic Upstate New York, the movie explores the anxieties and fears that many women face before, during and after pregnancy. Lydie's situation very much parallels Stephanie's at times, resulting in a strange symbiotic relationship between the two women. Those parallels aren't always as clearly drawn as they might be, but the positive result is that the story is made less obvious and more intriguing by the ambiguity."Stephanie Daley" is a low-keyed, thoughtful work that doesn't go in for flashy melodrama or thematic overstatement. It allows its narrative to unfold slowly, finding much of its drama in the minutiae of everyday life in the small town in which it is set.The movie is blessed with sensitive, subtle work from not only Swinton and Tamblyn but a large cast of secondary performers, including Timothy Hutton, Kel O'Neill, Denis O'Hare, and others. The relationships in the movie are intricate and complex, and the plot doesn't seek out a preset path or formula to follow. It's not a movie designed to appeal to mainstream audiences much, but for those who prefer their films to wander a bit off the well-beaten path, "Stephanie Daley" offers substantial rewards.

This is one of those movies that looks like it was developed from the Sundance workshops... and what do you know? Hallmarks of the category include female chauvinist perspectives, emasculated or violent male characters (if there are any men to speak of), long stagnant takes shot on digital video, and an aggressive tendency toward unresolved endings. This has most of them.And I don't care, because Tilda Swinton is plenty of reason to watch any movie. Even THE BEACH. Okay, I won't go that far. But she is pretty exciting. To paraphrase the old line, I'd pay to watch her go to the bathroom... and, in this movie, I get to. Several times. Be careful what you wish for, I guess. Not that I ever wanted that... alright, enough on this subject.Plus Amber Tamblyn, who far from sucks here, and Melissa Leo, who never gets enough to do in movies - though, Jesus, girl, you are racking up the films lately. I think Leo's made as many films in the last four years as she made her entire previous career - though, again, she usually doesn't get too many lines.Actually, Hilary Brougher raises this picture somewhat above its disadvantages through nuance, innuendo, and lack of blatancy, though this very ambiguity does ultimately queer the ending, as in, I don't really get what's going on with the shrink character when credits roll. Not that I need everything spelled out, but I need to know what language we're speaking. Perhaps Sudden Cutaway to Overexposed Window means something in Girrrlish.Maybe I need to bone up on my Independent Woman Filmmaker symbolism. Or maybe I need to shut up before I get slapped with a Thoughtless Human with Penis label and written into another script where men fail to make the world entirely comfortable for women.

Wow, what a movie! As most of the comments before, acting was superb, the story was well laid out, intelligently and without patronizing explanations. What I was really aware of this time- I am not one very sensitive to technique in general- was the way the film was shot and the resulting realistic feel. None of the "look at me I am using a hand held camera so people would think it's a documentary" but I had the constant feeling this was real. The scene where the two Cranes are at the party, the unselective sound made the scene fell like it was a real party, one where you have a hard time sorting out voices and conversation from the general din. The camera was slightly swaying sometimes and the light not perfectly chosen so you felt like you do in real life: not always in the best spot to witness life unraveling, which is a characteristic of most movies, where any viewer is sitting in first row. That gave the performances extra boost, extra credibility and made the viewer absorb the movie's content even more deeply.The scene in the bathroom at the ski trip is devastating, you can almost feel her physical and emotional pain and her conflicting emotions about the abortion, there for you to witness out of that sliver of space between door and doorjamb. Unforgettable. Too bad she is not getting an Oscar for it, but seldom Oscars are given to best actors, just best actors on the main circuit who made the movies at the right time to get the prize etc etc...If this is not worth a 10 what is? But definitely not for anyone, not for those who need special effects or to be blasted from the chair by action or violence... for a mature audience even though the message is about the kids the movie is for their parents, to change how sex is taught in school...

I watched it Saturday, along with all the special features. It was a tough movie. If you don't like indie film, you might have a hard time with it. If you do, it's an astonishing achievement. All the acting is uniformly excellent. I don't mean to undercut the obviously painstaking work Tilda Swinton did in creating her character......but this is Amber Tamblyn's movie. Period. Anyone who watched Joan Of Arcadia already knew she could act her heart out. But what she does here is nothing short of phenomenal. She gets every nuance of Stephanie --- someone VERY different from her own flaky, artsy hippie-chick personality --- absolutely right. There's not one minute of "acting" in her time on screen. I promise you that if you give yourself to this story you will not come out of it the same.And you will not soon forget it.