What Maisie Knew (2012) [Movie Review]

While Maisie's parents are separating, she finds herself in the middle of a custody battle. Each parent is attempting to out-do the other, Maisie is forced into situations she doesn't understand and she without a doubt doesn't want to be a part of. I knew nothing of this film before buying the movie. But after reading the brief synopsis found on the flip side of the DVD cover, I knew I had to see it.

This film is great, just as I figured it would be. All of the lead adults are wonderful in their roles. And Onata Aprile, the girl who played Maisie, is sure to have a good future as an actress. There was a rare scene or two that seemed to have been bogged down by her inexperience, but overall she did a great job making herself believable.

This film finds itself in an awkward position, filming wise. It tries to only show things that Maisie sees, but there are many scenes that don't feature Maisie, to make the viewer better understand each situation. This may be nothing more than my opinion, but I think this film could have benefited from showing only things that Maisie would have seen. To see the story from only the perspective of the child would have made the film more powerful.

And my only other complaint, and this one is really minor, is that on a rare occasion they would use a slow motion kind of effect. And while the film was in it's slower state, it was clear to see that the camera(s) being used didn't have a high frame rate capability. It was noticeably choppy, but especially given the films small budget, it's not a big issue.

In all honesty, none of the problems I found in this film were that big of problems. All of them are easy to look passed, just remember that I didn't highlight any of the good things in this movie, only the "bad". And I couldn't find many bad things. I highly recommend this movie.

Rating: 8/10

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