User Reviews

She knew who really loved her and who cared for her...

She also knew that mummy and daddy were too busy arguing to notice that the pizza guy had arrived. "What Maisie Knew" practically opens mid-tirade and Maisie, a wide-eyed six- year old girl has heard it all before, she skips innocently through their art-deco New York apartment, past her none-the-wiser parents, pulls out a fistful of dollar bills from her own piggy-bank and returns to the door to pay for the pizza.

"What Maisie Knew" is a re-visioning of the 19th-Century Henry James novel by the same name. The story follows Maisie, played by the captivating Onata Aprile , caught in the midst of a custody battle between her aging rock star mother Susanna and art-dealer father, Beale.

Susanna intensely played by the always-brilliant Julianne Moore and Beale (Steve Coogan) only unite in their neglect and emotional abandonment of little Maisie, and both of whom are not above using their daughter as a pawn in their war game.

As they battle on with the messy custody arrangements, Beale marries former nanny Margo (Joanna Vanderham), and in retaliation Susanna also remarries, to young bartender Lincoln, (Alexander Skargard).

As Maisie moves between her parents now separate lives, we unearth a natural connection between Maisie and Lincoln. You feel safe when he is around, even though he doesn't know what he is doing half the time and like Maisie, is out of his depth and unsure where he stands in Susanna's life.

Constantly, Susanna relies on Lincoln to pick Maisie up from school, drop her off, and spend time with her and improvise when necessary.  But as the affectionate bond between her new husband and her daughter grows, Susanna becomes jealous of the relationship to the point of enforcing to Lincoln "you don't get a bonus for making her like you".

"You don't deserve her," Lincoln lashes out as Susanna breaks up with him, expressing exactly what the viewer has been thinking. But as another relationship in Maisie's life ends, it's her resilience that keeps us captivated and in awe of such a brave girl.

The story is told from Maisie's perspective including many shots even captured from Maisie's eye level so we get a fresh look at an unoriginal story. Instead of finding out why a parent leaves her at school, we just see how the child remembers being left alone. Instead of knowing what the parents are fighting about, we see how it impacts the child and her memories of it.

"What Masie knew" is a bleak film but hopeful, it demonstrates that innocence is not something to be wasted and used but cherished and protected. What Masie knew is  to trust the people who actually take care of her - never voicing an allegiance against anyone but accepting love when it's offered

Greetings again from the darkness. An ultra-modern update of the 1897 Henry James novel introduces us to parents we know, but wish we didn't. Steve Coogan plays Beale, a self-absorbed art dealer. Julianne Moore plays Susanna, a self-absorbed rock star. OK, you and I may not know art dealers and rock stars, but we know self-absorbed types and we know they make terrible parents. So not only do we know it, but it's also what Maisie knows.

Five outstanding performances and strong work by co-directors Scott McGhee and David Siegel prevent this one from spinning off into the neverlands of melodramatic muck. Onata Aprile is a wonder as Maisie. She displays none of the typical "movie kid" precociousness. The movie (and James novel) are told from her point of view. We see the fragmented bits and pieces she experiences as her parents fight. Rather than a full story, we share her moments of late pick-ups, early drop-offs and forgotten trips.

Soon enough Beale and Susanna are divorced and the real wars begin. These despicable adults make little effort in hiding their hatred of each other from 6 year old Maisie. It becomes background noise to her life. Further proof of the epic narcissism from both, Beale soon marries Margot the nanny (played by Joanna Vanderham) and Susanna reacts by marrying Lincoln, a band gopher and bartender played by studly Alexander Skarsgard. The most startling moment of the movie occurs when Lincoln first begins playing with Maisie ... it's as if we had almost forgotten what it means to give your attention to a child.

This is not an easy film to watch ... at least if you understand that parenting means putting yourself second. The directors do a wonderful job of showing us how Maisie takes in moments and what memories she makes from these. The neglect and false moments of caring from her parents make her acceptance of the attention to her step-parents even more poignant. We can't help but hope things work out for this little girl and it's a reminder that childhood innocence cannot be recaptured once lost ... and it's worth hanging on to for as long as possible.

It always amazes me when I see a really impressive child acting performance. This is one of an impressive collective of films where a young performer has been quite outstanding. But there is something of an important difference between this one and most others. While the likes of Tatum O'Neal (Paper Moon), Ivana Baquero (Pan's Labyrinth) or Haley Joel Osment (The Sixth Sense) were all brilliant, none of them were as young as Onata Aprile. When you consider that at her age she simply will be incapable of understanding all the nuances of the screenplay, it makes it all the more outstanding just how good she is. She doesn't really say a whole lot but her looks convey massive amounts of meaning. Her performance is so natural that it reminds me of kid's drawings – so unaffected, unpretentious and instinctive that adults can never faithfully replicate them. The acting by the entire cast here is top calibre but at times like this you cannot compete and Onata Aprile easily steals the show.

It's quite a disturbing story really. Maisie is a neglected child and it's not very pleasant seeing her be passed around from pillar to post being essentially disregarded. The view the film adopts is a child's one. We see Maisie peeking round corners, in the periphery watching, seeing but never fully comprehending but understanding more than she is given credit for. She seems to know more about right and wrong than her parents do, for example. They are in worlds of their own, ignoring their little girl in order to play out their own self-obsessed games. Steve Coogan and Julianne Moore are very good in these unsympathetic roles in which they make you understand why they are like the way they are without making us actually sympathise with them.

The film works so well because it's given such an unsentimental treatment. The story unfolds subtly and believably and it avoids saccharine. While Maisie's parents are the bad guys of the piece they're not really villains as such, just extremely poor parents and very selfish people generally. As it turns out, it's the parent's new partners who are left increasingly in charge of the little girl and they are slowly drawn towards each other too. Collectively they make for an actual workable and loving family unit. Both Alexander Skarsgård and Joanna Vanderham are also great as these much more sympathetic adults. Events ultimately progress to an ending that was upbeat without sacrificing believability; it's simultaneously inconclusive yet hopeful. I suppose one of the messages of What Maisie Knew is that what is important is what is best for the child, not what is convenient for blood parents.

What Maisie Knew (2012)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Excellent updating of the Henry James story about a divorcing couple (Julianne Moore, Steve Coogan) and the impact that their behavior has on their young daughter Maisie (Onata Aprile) as well as the new step parents (Alexander Skarsgard, Joanna Vanderham). WHAT MAISIE KNEW isn't going to appeal to a mass audience but it's certainly a terrific little gem from directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel. What I enjoyed the most was the unique way it told the story. We never get the "full" story of everything going on but instead we get the bits and pieces that a child would remember about something. Instead of finding out why a parent leaves her at school, we just see how the child remembers being left alone. Instead of knowing what the parents are fighting about, we see how it impacts the child and her memories of it. This is a very unique way to tell the story and it gives a touch of freshness to a storyline (divorce) that we've seen before. It also doesn't hurt that the film doesn't shy away from some rather ugly behavior from the parents and especially the Moore character. To say she's an unworthy mother would be an understatement but I appreciate the film playing things straight and not ever trying to make something cute. It also doesn't hurt that we get some of the best performances that you're going to see all year with Moore doing an excellent job in her role as the busy mother who doesn't have enough time for her daughter. This is a rather ugly role so it was brave for the actress to take it on. The same with Coogan who also plays a jerk and delivers with some strong work. Both Skarsgard and Vanderham really steal the film in the roles of the step parents who find themselves being forced to deal with something they never expected. Both of them should be remembered at Oscar time but we'll see how that goes. The same is true for Aprile who doesn't get too much dialogue but we constantly see her reactions to the things going on around here. This is such an excellent and quiet performance and something you'd see in a silent movie. WHAT MAISIE KNEW is about a pretty ugly subject matter but it's a fascinating look at it for those who enjoy great performances and a unique story.

This movie is a little gem. I read the New York Times review that said it was "Brilliant" or whatever, and I don't know if I'd go that far, but it's definitely the best movie about divorce and child custody I've ever seen, and it's nothing like Kramer vs. Kramer. It's actually really sweet and real feeling, mostly because you really identify with the little girl Maisie. All the adult actors are great, and sometimes funny (Steve Coogan), but I especially loved Alexander Skarsgard. He seems like a loser when you first see him, but he ends up being super loving, and his scenes with Maisie are really fun to watch. Haters are going to hate, but I think anyone would relate to this film about parents, kids, and finding people to love.

I've read five previously posted reviews of this film and see no reason to repeat what they've already said. I agree, for the most part, with the positive ones. And I suspect the negative ones were written by people whose established taste in movies should have steered them away from seeing this one in the first place.

What I'll add is, I guess, a mostly personal perspective. I've found that I am lately much more drawn to smaller, more deeply felt movies than to bigger, slicker, higher-production-value ones. To "What Maisie Knew," for example, than to "The Great Gatsby." Even though both source novels share a similar interior aesthetic, the treatment in the former stays inside the characters, where James focused the original (thus causing one of the previous reviewers' comments to the effect that "nothing happens" in the movie), while the latter (possibly because of Luhrmann's well-established directorial predilections)stays resolutely focused on the exterior spectacle and barely skims the surface of Fitzgerald's deeply rendered characterizations.

If you like smaller, more closely observed and deeply felt films, you'll like this one.

What Maisie Knew (2012)

A truly remarkable movie, filled with great acting, masterful editing and filming, and terrific writing. The basis of it all is the core here, a glimmering Henry James novel by the same title from over 100 years earlier. It's amazing how well the story holds up set in contemporary times, and changed in many necessary (and interesting) ways. What it keeps it going is the basic heartbreaking drama of a child tossed between two indifferent parents.

The mother might be seen as the main actor here, Julianne Moore, and this is the best I've ever seen her, I think. She gives a slightly fiery performance, and "slightly" is perfect, avoiding an overacting job suggested by her role as a slightly successful rock and roll star. She's terrifically awful and you come to hate her, appropriately.

The father (Steve Coogan) also puts in a sharp performance playing the lively, fun parent who is a selfish womanizer, hiding, sometimes, his flaws from his daughter. His relationship with the mother is not detailed very far because it is mostly one of distance and disdain. And mutual abuse.

The real star here is the girl, an utterly charming and beautifully effective actress, Onata, Aprile. She succeeds not by her delivery of great lines, but by her expressions. It's all because Henry James understood something delicate about children in these situations: they know what's going on and don't say it. And they also don't let it affect them because they simply can't afford to, or because they become hardened in some little ways, making them withdraw or act out. That Maisie maintains a delicious sweetness without playing the victim is quite remarkable, and Aprile is brilliant.

The secondary woman and man in the story are also terrific, and their roles grow as the movie grows. In fact, they become the sympathetic heart of things.

Pulling this together is the directing pair, McGehee and Siegel. This is their fifth movie together, and neither man has directed anything without the other. I've not seen any of the other four, but the reviews are middling to poor for all of them, so I'm not sure how far the novelty takes us. But it works here perfectly, making the complexity unfold quickly and coherently.

It's an ordinary drama on the surface, but let this one sink in over time. It's that good.

This film is mildly recommended.

What Maisie knew was her divorcing parents were constantly at odds with each other. Based on the Henry James novel and given a substantially modern revision, the film depicts scenes from a young girl's point of view as these dysfunctional adults use their daughter's unconditional love as a emotional pawn to hurt each other and selfishly gain the upper hand. The story may be old and predictable, but sadly, the battle between the separating spouses is a well known commodity and still being enacted in many broken homes today. What Maisie Knew is a film that takes an unflinching glimpse at the carnage left in the aftermath.

By focusing on the littlest survivor's struggle in dealing with this bitter custody wars, the film already lays bias to Maisie's parents as evil and self-serving types. Both parents are egomaniacs and creepy. Susanna (Julianne Moore) is a narcissistic rock star and Beale ( Steve Coogan) is a successful art dealer. Both are better suited for their jobs than as Maisie's parents. As their hatred builds for each other, Maisie's world begins to implode as new people enter her parents' lives and now become part of hers: Beale remarries Margot (Joanna Vanderham), Maisie's nanny, and Susanna remarries a younger man, Lincoln ( Alexander Skarsgard). Their interactions and relationships are the mainstay of the film.

While the parent roles are wholly unsympathetic and truly unlikable characters, the actors playing them are quite good at giving them some redeeming qualities. Moore's Susanna is such a self absorbed diva, jealous of any attention going to anyone other than herself, including her own daughter and Moore plays the role with disturbing intensity. Coogan's Beale is the father in absentia, more interested in worldly fortune and travel plans. As their supporting spouses, Skarsgard and Vanderham bring their charm and appeal to their more congenial roles. But at the core of the film is Onata Aprile as the young child. The young actress manifests a believability and naturalism to her role as Maisie. Her solemn looks and inquisitive manner elicit the perfect degree of empathy and concern.

What Maisie Knew is solidly directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel and co-written by Nancy Doyne and Carroll Cartwright. One could see that this film was a labor of love by the filmmakers. The film is fragmented and filmed in a stream of conscience structure as Maisie observes various changes in her own life. Subtle touches help to capture the chaos forming around Maisie's daily life: the loud arguments going on in the next room while she tries to sleep, her long waits for either parent to take their turns for custody duties, her independent skills in making herself a grown-up sandwich for dinner, etc.

What Maisie Knew begins to lose itself in the last third of the film. It was there that a lack of credibility set in for me and the actions became contrary to the characters' nature. Their reactions registered as untrue and served only as a means to concoct a more positive ending. The melodrama overtook the genuine drama that was so successfully established for most of the film. Still there is much to admire in What Maisie Knew, a film that values the innocence of the young while constantly realizing that a child's world is always trumped by the power of parenthood, be they good parents, or in this case, very bad ones. GRADE: B-

ANY COMMENTS: Please contact me at: jadepietro@rcn.com

What Maisie Knew (2012), directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel, is an extraordinary movie about an extraordinary young girl. Maisie (Onata April) deserves better parents. Both her mother (Julianne Moore) and her father (Steve Coogan) are self-absorbed people who care about Maisie, but care about their careers more than about their daughter.

Maisie is cheerful, cooperative, and adaptive. Although her life has all the trappings of luxury--a nanny, an exclusive private school--she lives in a precarious world. Her parents make only haphazard arrangements for her care. Sometimes these arrangements work, sometimes they don't. Once, the haphazard plans fall through, and Maisie is literally abandoned among strangers. We don't know what will happen next to Maisie, but it probably won't be good. Her parents don't deserve such a great little girl. But, she is their daughter, and she'll have to play the cards she's been dealt.

The acting is strong in this movie, but I think the most impressive work is done by Julianne Moore. Moore is brave enough to take a role where she often looks tired and worn, and where her character is truly inadequate as a parent. You cringe at the way Moore makes stabs at being a good mother, but never quite works hard enough to actually achieve that goal. I think she deserves--and will get--an Oscar nomination for her work in this film.

There are a few lovely views of a beach and the ocean in the movie. These will work better in a theater, but everything else will work well on the small screen. This is definitely a film that is worth seeking out and seeing.

5.9 of 10. The movie/rock star version of a child stuck in a divorce and its many other complications. There's a variety of mystery and relationship subplots going on, such as who is the villain and who is the hero and who gets Maise. The child in this case has the advantage of having wealthy parents, so some of the normal problems are removed while other problems come up and other common problems remain.

The casting fits nearly perfect. The girl is cute but not too cute, which fits her parents. Moore is still attractive but clearly an aged star beyond her prime years, someone like so many in the present day seeking to be a parent a little too late.

Despite an intriguing story that has most of the touches of reality lacking in too many family films, it doesn't go anywhere significant and never really fits the title, leaving it as a cute heart warmer of a film about what Maise observes and feels.

This is what I hope Henry James would have written, were he alive today. The book is tough sledding, late James when he was dictating his novels (due to tendinitis), and there was no holding him back. At least one Harvard professor called him "the greatest American novelist," but this work is deservedly minor.

The movie was perfect, in the top 1% of all I've seen. The style was the antithesis of James, radical "showing" instead of "telling."

I think the title should have been "What Maisie SAW," but that's too titillating. What she knew or felt only her future therapist will learn. We do have a hint though when her father throws her mother's flowers away, and M explains, "He was allergic."

A gorgeous film that manages to convey the emotion of childhood at its more heart-wrenching. The central performance by Joanna Vanderham is absolutely extraordinary, and reminds me of some of the greatest child performances I've ever seen on film. As her parents, Julianne Moore and Steve Coogan make you feel like you are right in the middle of the tumult of family life. Directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel have created a movie that feels like life, the vulnerability, the abruptness, the comedy, the joy.

With intimacy at times almost startling, this is one of the best adaptations of a novel by Henry James I've ever seen.

"None of this is your fault." Susanna (Moore) and Beale (Coogan) and going through a bitter and nasty divorce. Stuck in the middle is their 6 year old daughter Maisie. While they focus on their own lives and how to one up the other their new partners are left to care for the little girl. There are some movies that after you watch leave you speechless because words don't do the movie justice. The two for me that come to mind are The Passion Of The Christ and We Need To Talk About Kevin. This is in another category of movie where it leaves you speechless because there are so many things you want to say about it but find it hard to express. The little girl who plays Maisie really steals the movie from Moore and the other big names by portraying a girl with such innocence that you really want nothing but the best for her in the hell she is going through. Besides being a very great movie it will also make you feel different about being a parent and why putting your child's welfare ahead of your own is so important. An example of why everyone should not be allowed to have children. Overall, a must see and important movie that won't get the publicity and recognition it deserves because nothing blows up in it. I give it an A.

I had this movie for a few months but the whole plot didn't really interest me so I didn't watch it till tonight.I gotta say I really liked it! It shows the parents struggle and the child who gets harmed something a lot of people can relate to...and how a little girl can make better decisions than her parents for her self. the good part is the whole thing is real and honest and it doesn't just fool you with a childish happily ever after. the acting is great,the little girl is absolutely AMAZING I loved her. the story mainly focus on Maisie and her point of view so you don't really get the chance to really know what's going on in Lincoln and Margo lives which is unfortunate because I really liked them. this is not the movie of the year but an honest good movie about life.you should give it a try.

Simply put, What Maisie Knew is a wholesome film that feels real, but not melodramatic. The entire cast is excellent. The director and cinematographer are skilled at depicting scenes of up-close intimacy and care. The pacing is solid and the story is relatable. As the film progressed I found myself sincerely hoping for those good people to prevail, succeed and find happiness. It's hard, now, to find movies that have any moral message whatsoever; and to find one that underlines the real effects of neglect and psychological abuse suffered, by children, in a way that's still entertaining, watchable and inspiring - is a bright accomplishment.

Predictable? Yes, Simple? Yes, Touching? Yes, Beautifully made and well acted? Absolutely ! the soundtrack isn't my favorite but the cinematography is amazing !

There's a lot of good in this movie, but unfortunately, I just could not get past the lame choice to make Julianne Moore's character a "rock star." I just found it totally unbelievable and it served no purpose toward the plot or story arc whatsoever. She has made a career of playing high-strung, dysfunctional characters, so no problem there. But rock star? I don't buy it. You can't just throw on a bad tattoo and expect it to work. She has no edge at all. Was Betty White unavailable? And plus, she's not so dysfunctional that she's a druggie trainwreck, so why even bother? What she does is insignificant to the overall story, so why make such a wild leap of logic? I just found it totally distracting and annoying. The rest of the cast does fine, although the messages are a bit obvious and they beat you over the head with them while feigning subtlety.