Rosie

Directed by Gail Maurice, Rosie follows Keris Hope Hill’s title character as she’s sent to live with her wayward aunt (Mélanie Bray’s Frédèrique) – with the picture subsequently detailing the mismatched pair’s low-key exploits over several weeks. Filmmaker Maurice, armed with her own screenplay, delivers an earnest and mostly entertaining drama that benefits from its vibrant cinematography and compelling performances, as, in terms of the latter, both Hill and Bray turn in strong, charming work that goes a long way towards perpetuating the movie’s agreeable atmosphere. (The palpable chemistry between the two actors doesn’t hurt, either.) It’s clear, then, that Rosie‘s inability to become the consistently engrossing endeavor Maurice has intended is due to its meandering, episodic narrative, with the general lack of forward momentum ensuring that the film is really only effective (and affecting) in fits and spurts. The watchable (yet far from spellbinding) vibe is compounded by a paint-by-numbers storyline that contains few surprises and too great an emphasis on crowd-pleasing interludes (eg a peppy montage in which Frédèrique and her friends prepare her apartment for a social worker’s visit), although, by that same token, the completely satisfying closing stretch does ensure that Rosie finishes on a positive note – with the end result a decent debut for first-time filmmaker Maurice.

**1/2 out of ****