Opera composer Steven Lauddem (Peter Dinklage) is stuck. The deadline for his newest opera looms just two weeks away, but he\u2019s nowhere near finished with it. His wife, Patricia (Anne Hathaway), is supportive and understanding, though as a therapist \u2014 formerly his<\/em> therapist \u2014 it\u2019s part of the territory. In a chance meeting in Brooklyn, Steven encounters Katrina (Marisa Tomei), a tugboat captain and recovering romance addict. She takes him back to where her boat is anchored in nearby Red Hook and seduces the very willing Steven. He finds inspiration in their coupling and quickly composes an opera about a tugboat captain\/siren, rediscovering success and critical acclaim with a work loosely based on their encounter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, Patricia\u2019s teenage son, Julian (Evan Ellison), has fallen for his grade-skipping classmate Tereza (Harlow Jane), whose mom, Magdalena (Joanna Kulig), and stepdad, Trey (Brian d’Arcy James), aren\u2019t initially aware of their relationship. At first, these two plots don\u2019t seem related, but then Miller\u2019s script throws a curveball to connect them and show exactly how far people will go for love. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That twist upsets the tonal balance of She Came to Me<\/em>, turning an enjoyably off-kilter comedy about the various impacts of an affair briefly into something more serious. Yet Miller never fully deals with the implications of what she sets up in the film\u2019s second half about young Julian, who is a person of color, resulting in an absolutely bewildering experience. She Came to Me<\/em> doesn\u2019t really acknowledge the role that race could play in Julian\u2019s subplot, which is wild in 2023. It will be impossible for most of the audience not<\/em> to think about it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Miller\u2019s New York here and in Maggie\u2019s Plan<\/em> is not unlike Woody Allen\u2019s version of the city, where every resident is seemingly defined by their neuroses \u2014 and almost everyone is white. There\u2019s not much personality of the real New York present in this film, though these characters have enough eccentricities to compensate. Brian d\u2019Arcy James\u2019 Trey is a full-time court reporter and part-time Civil War reenactor equally obsessed with the legal system and historical accuracy. Tomei\u2019s Katrina is full of surprises, from her addiction to love and sex to her cozy berth that looks like its owner went wild at Anthropologie, rather than what we expect of a tugboat captain\u2019s cabin. Hathaway\u2019s Patricia lives a regimented life governed by a love of cleaning and relegating sex to certain days of the week, so is it any surprise when she becomes enamored with the idea of becoming a nun? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Though ostensibly set in the real world, Miller\u2019s films aren\u2019t intended to be a reflection of reality, but She Came to Me<\/em>\u2019s insistence on ignoring what\u2019s actually going on in the present takes the viewer out of the largely whimsical world she has created. It mars the experience despite the efforts of all of these great actors. Tomei and Hathway have won Oscars, for god\u2019s sake, and I\u2019ll never stop being mad that Dinklage has never even been nominated, despite amazing performances in everything from The Station Agent <\/em>to Cyrano<\/em>. They\u2019re all doing yeoman\u2019s work here, but it can\u2019t buoy the film. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Even with the addition of the subplot, She Came to Me<\/em> only clocks in at around 100 minutes, a milestone it strains to reach. This could be a pleasantly slight film if it had chosen to focus purely on the love triangle between the composer, the therapist, and the tugboat captain on the streets of New York, but it tries \u2014 and fails \u2014 in its pursuit of something more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “She Came to Me” is in theaters Friday.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/she-came2-1024x682.jpeg\")
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