Nancy (2018) Reviews

• A wonderful and painful film to watch.

  Hellmant2018-07-13

  'NANCY': Four and a Half Stars (Out of Five) A mystery-drama about a woman who comes to believe she was kidnapped as a child, after seeing a couple on TV who's daughter went missing 30-years earlier. The film was written and directed by debut feature filmmaker Christina Choe. It stars Andrea Riseborough, J. Smith-Cameron, Steve Buscemi, Ann Dowd and John Leguizamo. It's gotten mostly positive reviews from critics, and it's playing in select indie theaters now (like Portland). I found it to be extremely well made and fascinating. Nancy Freeman (Riseborough) is a depressed, and very lonely woman in her thirties. She feels mostly alienated by all those around her, including her sick mom (Dowd). After her mother passes away one day, Nancy sees a couple on TV, Ellen (Smith-Cameron) and Leo Lynch (Buscemi), who's daughter went missing 30-years earlier (at the age of five). Nancy is the same age that the girl would be now, and the projected picture, of what the missing child would look like now, looks just like her. So Nancy becomes convinced that she's the couple's missing child, and after meeting then she becomes more and more convinced of this. So does the desperate mother, and an odd relationship forms between the Lynches and Nancy. The movie is really involving, from the opening scene until the last one. It's got a great premise too, that keeps you guessing all the way until the film's conclusion too. The performances are all good (especially Riseborough), and you really learn to care for all of these extremely damaged but oddly loveable characters too. It's a wonderful and painful film to watch, that's well worth seeing in my opinion.

• Better the next morning.

  mmentges-12018-11-30

  We watched this movie on DVD last evening and both my husband and I disliked it and gave it a 2. But the next morning I was still thinking about it, and decided it was a very good film deserving a much better rating. Any film, like any work of art, is subject to interpretation - (people are still trying to decide what the Mona Lisa is smiling about), and my interpretation is based on my experience and world events. Two days before watching the movie, an item was in the press that the suicide rate and drug deaths in the USA continue to rise - especially in rural areas. Large cities have continued to prosper, but small towns (like the one depicted in this film) have continued to stagnate and offer few opportunities. Nancy is one of the victims, it seems, of a small town, a dependent mother, and a life lived out on the internet and blogs. She obviously photo-shopped pictures of a trip to North Korea to impress co-workers, and fakes a pregnancy for her blog. The one time she actually smiles in the film is when she is texting. Although the film is not really about living ones life on a smart phone and the internet, one can see how Nancy is caught up in the media, and is actually convinced she is the kidnapped daughter of a couple she sees on TV. The end of the movie is not unexpected, as she drives away from what might be a fulfilling relationship with a new family, because she really can't seem to communicate with real people and real situations for the long-term. We imagine Nancy going back to her desperate life and creating yet another fantasy. Sad, but very real for so many people these days - 500 Facebook friends and no one to talk with. Great understated acting, and nice quiet direction - nothing to hit you over the head, but enough to make you think!

• Good, I guess.

  subxerogravity2018-06-12

  It's a quiet flick. Very unhollywood and I did like how the story was fairly interesting without resulting in the usually Hollywood tricks like slap stick or melodrama At the same time the movie feels like a baseball game with a team trying to get on base and score versus going for the home run. I felt that the acting talent was not fully used to their full capability because I just did not feel the full impact of the story. It just falls short. Did hold the same quality as say Slow West, which I felt was a quiet movie that does hit you hard. Very bland.

• Unconditionally loved it

  bashfulbadger2018-10-25

  The beginning of the movie was absorbingly unhurried, drawing you into the claustrophobic confines of antiheroine Nancy's (Andrea Riseborough) white bread world. We witness her dysfunctional co-dependency with undemonstrative mother Betty (Ann Dowd, even dourer than in Handmaid). A poor excuse for a parent, she is the antonym of empowering of her offspring, discouraging downtrodden Nancy from trying, convinced she'll never succeed. Riseborough impressively blends vulnerability and an innate dishonesty as this lost child-woman floundering on the outskirts of society cooking up interesting life experiences to swap like recipes in work lunch breaks, in an effort to convince everybody else that she's just like them. When she wishful thinks herself the child kidnapped from dream parents Ellen (J. Smith-Cameron) and (Steve Buscemi) as a five-year-old, you cross your fingers and pray she's finally found where she belongs. Ellen for me was the revelation in the piece, a picture of heartbreaking hope and desperate desire that this pretender's story prove true. The bond they forge is beautiful and visibly enriches them both. Smith-Cameron's face, betraying all her emotions, and her developing unconditional love for this would-be daughter reduce me to tears. Paul Raeburn's music helps to destroy me. The film is full of ambiguities that intrigue rather than frustrate. Not much happens, in fact but we're allowed to watch a family drama play out and a soul adrift's quest for a safe mooring.

• Great Cast, Poor Movie and really bad WIG !

  hampersnow-289052018-09-22

  Nancy is filled with great actors giving it their all. The casting is perfection. The story sounded interesting but if you go into this thinking it is in any way a thriller it is not. These great actors are stuck in a movie that is just filled with holes, a poor script, a not very well fleshed out story and poor direction. It may seem minor but with a story this slow you can't help but notice things like wigs changing color from scene to scene and make-up jobs that disappear. At times I felt like maybe in the course of filming they changed direction and added or deleted parts leaving the final product an inconsistent jumble of scenes. Characters and situations that could have been fleshed out were not and by the time Nancy ended she was still pretty much a mystery. What a waste of acting talent ! With poor continuity, amateurish direction, a weak script, and bad editing , this film is an interesting idea gone wrong. And I can not mention it enough, but THAT WIG ! It is so distracting I can't help but wonder, was it used on purpose ?