"Fanny, Annie and Danny" is a smart, intimately observed dramatic comedy in the vein of Mike Leigh, Nicole Holofcener, or Miranda July. Writer/director Chris Brown's film is populated with multifaceted characters as complex and contradictory as real life.
This human-scaled film is built from Brown's wonderfully nuanced script and filled with outstanding performances. Jill Pixley carries the movie as Fanny, the OCD eldest daughter of a deeply dysfunctional family. Fanny lives in a group home where her compulsive habits are creating unrest and jeopardizing her place there. The plot is set into motion when she learns that the mom and pop candy factory where she has worked for 18 years is going out of business. Pixley is completely convincing in depicting mental illness without sacrificing her character's humanity.
Collete Keene plays Edie, the merciless, misanthropic mother of three grown children-- a brave performance as a character who is all but irredeemable-- and George Killingsworth is heart-breakingly fragile as the emasculated father Ronnie, who seems in mostly like the walking dead but enjoys private, subversive moments of bliss when out of his wife's gaze. Jonathan Leveck is Danny, the baby of the family and the star child for whose attention everyone competes. Carlye Pollack's Annie, the middle child is needy and envious of anyone at the center of attention.
Nick Frangione is wonderful as Annie's fiancé Todd, a gifted slacker who seems shallow and self-absorbed, but ultimately displays more compassion and altruism than any other character.
"Fanny, Annie and Danny" is built from small, truthful, particular moments. I appreciate the respect and space it gives the viewer, refusing to judge its characters even in their extreme moments of cruelty, and offering mostly indirect clues as to the characters' history and motives. Though essentially a family drama, it is filled with hilarious details and wry observations, including some original Christmas songs that are slightly surreal distortions of something from "Mel Bay's Easy Way for Electric Home Organ." I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to see this movie at the White Sands Int'l Film Festival, and I heartily recommend seeking it out. I was somewhat let down by the ending-- a bold choice by Brown that I respect but still have reservations about. Nevertheless, the movie has stayed with me for days and I'm happy to have discovered a new auteur director whose work I will continue to follow.