What Maise Knew - movie review

         
           What Maise Knew is taken from the novel of the same name written by Henry James in 1898. The movie tells the story of six-year-old Maise (Onata Aprile) who becomes the human volleyball between bitterly divorcing parents, played by Steve Coogan and Julianne Moore.  Maise has that wide-eyed innocence and purity of a child who has done no wrong and who deserves the best love and attention any child should have. Maise does get some of that devotion from the new spouses of her divorced parents; she smiles and comes alive under their care, and they instantly become her loving caregivers.  

          The ill-suited parents can do nothing right, saying “I love you,” but leaving – or rather dumping – Maise on the street with no assurance of anyone to care for her, or forgetting her at school hours after she was supposed to be picked up by mom.  Their shallowness occurs throughout the entire movie, and Coogan and Moore do an outstanding job as neglectful, self-centered and angry people who stop at nothing to lash out at each other even if it means torment and misery for their precious child.

          It pained me to watch this movie as it might any child who has ever been the object of two warring parents. Neither one has the time or true desire to keep Maise emotionally healthy and happy but she’s almost too valuable to let go of in terms of being a tool for taunting the other parent.  Onata plays the innocent victim with minimal ‘acting’ relying mostly upon haunting looks that require little or no dialogue.

          A little research showed me that James wrote this story as a thorough condemnation of parents abandoning their responsibilities to their children. During his time, he saw English society as becoming more corrupt and decadent and What Maise Knew was his harshest indictment of these kinds of parents.

          Could I recommend this movie? Yes, in terms of the acting by all players, however, no, if you’re likely to be waiting for a bigger shoe to drop than is delivered in this film, or if you’re one of the walking wounded from a crummy childhood and/or split home. When I escaped to the movies in this film I wound up in a place I didn't really enjoy being.

Two out of five possible ticket stubs