Critic’s Pick: ‘Ginger & Rosa’

There is a moment for girls on the cusp of growing up that is fraught with both naiveté and worldliness, when teddy bears and T.S. Eliot are somehow comfortable companions for diary entries made in a darkening night. Filmmaker Sally Potter has set those passionate times inside the turmoil of ‘60s-era London, radio updates of the Cuban Missile Crisis crackling in the background of her beautifully wrought “Ginger & Rosa.” It follows the two lifelong friends of the title, finely acted by Elle Fanning and Alice Englert, respectively, as they experiment with smoking, boys, hair, clothes, politics, protest, religion, sex, love, all with the crushing passion and rising cynicism of those only beginning to see the world for what it is. Potter, who wrote and directed the film, is patient in weaving together their discoveries and disappointments and that most perilous of times when Ginger first realizes her parents are as flawed, fragile and afraid as she is. Events will divide and define both girls in ways that didn’t seem possible and Potter has given us the best seat in the house for all of it.

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