Oh those crazy things we do for love…

From writer/director Rebecca Miller; She Came To Me is yet another slice of upper crust New York living that actually ends up being one of her more relatable pieces yet because at the end of the day we’ll all do stupid shit for love.

A composer (Peter Dinklage) with an unfinished opera, a spiritually conflicted psychiatrist (Anne Hathaway), a free-spirited tugboat captain (Marisa Tomei) collide on an unpredictable voyage into uncharted waters.

There is a common thread in the films from writer/director Rebecca Miller that runs through here in She Came To Me, it’s the upper middle class person trying to free themselves from something that for one reason or another is just making them miserable.  Where she actually manages to differ herself on this one is that there’s actually something likeable about this neurotic mess of characters that transcends the story and just makes them all fleshed out human beings.

Miller’s films while always interesting have also fallen into the trappings of a forced artifice where we can kind of see the beats coming from a mile away while watching the story unfold, yet with She Came To Me we’re allowed a front row seat to the curve balls that life can throw at us and how on occasion we need to embrace the absurdity of something to truly make us happy.

Obviously it’s got a genuine flow to it and it manages to survive on an awkward comedic charm that avoids going for the gag and letting it all spill out, occasionally unevenly, which is ultimately the point.  Life is absurd and never really plays into the formula that we see on TV and Films, it’s ridiculously messy and that where the glorious honesty of reveling in the character’s obvious flaws comes to light.

With a loaded ensemble cast, Miller can really just let these fine actors play to their hearts content.

Anne Hathaway (who also served as producer on the project) as the highly strung alpha on the brink of a nervous breakdown is glorious to watch as she always plays it with a crack in the surface of her veneer and ropes us into the arc of her life with an effortless smile that shows this person is quietly dying inside and she’s not sure why.  Peter Dinklage plays the creatively blocked and struggling artist with hilarious accuracy as we see his process get dissected with a candor that is rarely seen on screen that admits genius is far more adjacent to being a hack then anyone cares to admit.

However the genuine star here is Marisa Tomei as the wayward tugboat captain who is “addicted” to romance & sex.  She plays it here not with the kind of crazy energy that you might expect but as someone who is just so honest and earnest about her feelings that they ultimately get used against her.  She’s the heart and soul of this story that is so relatable and weird that we buy it because we can see their flaws and we love them all for it.

That being said there are one too many storylines going on as a plotline with Hathaway’s son and the daughter of their cleaning lady doesn’t always feel earned at times but it ultimately serves as a driver for the main characters to find their happiness which is such a nice message that I can’t honestly be all that mad it either.

Is this the best film Rebecca Miller has ever made?  Probably not, but there’s something about She Came To Me which transcends the expected beats and allows for something flawed and ultimately beautiful to come through.