She Came to Me

Actor, novelist, and filmmaker Rebecca Miller returns to big-screen fiction features for the first time since her charming 2015 comedy Maggie's Plan with this peculiar romantic screwball dramedy. Peter Dinklage stars as an Opera composer suffering from deep insecurity, panic attacks, and a creative block. Now married to his obsessive-compulsive former therapist (Anne Hathaway), his problems haven't gotten much better. But a chance encounter with an eccentric female tugboat captain (Marisa Tomei) changes the course of his life. And there are lots more ultra-quirky characters and situations that somehow come together in this odd and unexpected little movie. It doesn't all work, but it's certainly not dull, and the cast keeps you engaged. Everyone except the two young leads (Evan Ellison and Harlow Jane) play such extreme personas it's impossible to connect with any of them fully. And Miller's baffling and unmotivated choice to keep randomly shifting the aspect ratio sure doesn't help draw us in (can we please stop this silly trend!) Yet, I still give this a mild recommendation because I never knew where it would go next, and pretty much everywhere it did made me smile.