Director/Writer: Lena Dunham
Starring: Lena Dunham,
Laurie Simmons, Grace Dunham, Jemimah Kirke, Merritt Wever, Alex Karpovsky,
David Call
Sometimes independent
features rub me the wrong way. Creatively there is certainly nothing wrong with
Lena Dunham’s feature film “Tiny Furniture”. It tells the story of a recent
college graduate who moves back in with her mother and younger sister in New
York. Played by Dunham, with her real life mother and sister playing her mother
and sister, Aura isn’t having an easy time adjusting to being a responsible
adult.
My problems with “Tiny
Furniture” have to do with the fact that I don’t like anybody in it. I kind of
like the mother, but her role is kind of aloof. She makes a good practical
parent, but she also doesn’t seem incredibly involved in her daughters’ lives, despite
the fact that they are right there in her house.
I understand that Dunham is
trying to present a realistic and fair portrayal of something approximating her
own experiences. Too much of the story matches her real life for it not to be
somewhat autobiographical. So she doesn’t paint herself as a saint or having
all the answers, but I had a great deal of trouble sympathizing with her. She
also never seems to try too hard to make the right choices, nor do many of the
people around her.
I spent most of the running
time of “Tiny Furniture” grasping to find something to relate to, something to
care about. Eventually I gave up, and I didn’t end up caring much at all about
what happened to Aura or any of her family. That is something no storyteller is
striving to achieve.
It’s tough to make a whiny
brat into a heroine. Perhaps it’s even more difficult for a whiny brat to turn
a whiny brat into a heroine. Dunham probably isn’t a whiny brat. Perhaps she
should stop thinking of herself as one. Now that she has an Emmy nomination for
her television show “Girls”, dropping the whiny brat umbrella could become
easier or more difficult. Either way, I don’t think I want to hear about it.
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