REVIEW
Stephanie Daley

Last night, Tuesday, April 24, 2007 Regent Releasing and Liberation Entertainment joined forces to bring a free promotional screening of Stephanie Daley to the Regent Theater in downtown Hollywood.  With the red carpet rolled out and cameramen shouting out to the arriving stars, Hollywood professionals and movie fans alike made their way inside to celebrate this Sundance film that according to Director Hilary Brougher “is finally finding its own life.”

As attendees milled around and the theater buzzed with curious anticipation, one thought impressed itself on my mind – LA knows how to do movies.  And I’m not talking about the film making process – I’m talking about watching the film and celebrating the artistic expression therein.  There is no other city in the world that holds such a soft spot in its heart for the popcorn, the candy, the darkened intimacy of the theater-going experience.  And last nights event was a beautiful expression of that heart.

Stephanie Daley begins simply, quickly and without pretension.  Following a trail of bloody footsteps up a snowy mountainside, we meet Stephanie Daley (Amber Tamblyn), a young adolescent girl who, in obvious pain, collapses weakly into the snow.  Through a series of quick cuts and short scenes, we discover that while on a high school ski trip, Stephanie has suffered the miscarriage of her baby, a baby she claims she didn’t know even existed. After the police find water in the lungs of the tiny baby and toilet paper in its nose and mouth, Stephanie finds herself facing charges of murder.

Running parallel to Stephanie’s story is that of forensic psychologist Lydie Crane (Tilda Swinton).  Lydie is hired on by the prosecution to give an unbiased opinion of Stephanie’s story, to let the world know whether or not she believes Stephanie actually murdered her own child.  A controversial assignment for Lydie as she is currently pregnant herself, Lydie nonetheless takes on Stephanie’s case – it will serve as a distraction from her own problem riddled life and her stunted grieving process for a previous stillborn child.

Through a series of counseling sessions, Stephanie’s horrific history swirls with Lydie’s tumultuous present. As Stephanie attempts to come to peace with both herself and her past, Lydie continues to fight her circumstances. Both women struggle forward, one attempting to do whatever necessary to keep her child, one attempting to come to terms with throwing a child away.

An insightful and provocative film, Stephanie Daley digs deep without succumbing to the stigma of being merely a “hot button issue” film.  It refuses to present motherhood as the happy, glowing experience that is paraded so blatantly before our eyes and instead displays the deep-seated fear and anxiety that can envelope each stage of pregnancy.

Amber Tamblyn gives an incredible performance in the title role.  She gives Stephanie a melancholy that suits her situation, a quiet thoughtfulness that makes her every look brim with meaning and importance.  When the camera focuses purely on her face, you can’t take your eyes away.  She captures your attention completely.  Her scenes in the bathroom stall while suffering the pains of an early labor are haunting, terrifying and utterly unnerving.   

Tilda Swinton is equally impressive as Lydie Crane.  With a haunted and unnatural look around her to begin with, embodying the anxious and fearful Lydie could not have been much of stretch for Swinton.  If it was, it didn’t show in the least, making her performance all the more impressive.  When you enjoy just watching someone think, you know you’re in the presence of a great actor.

While David Morrison’s cinematography has garnered much praise, I have to confess it didn’t quite work for me.  This story is very dark, very threatening, very invasive and continually the screen was splashed with light, with bright, saturated colors.  While it was very pretty to look at, it didn’t do much to help out with tone of the film.  The darkest scenes were a part of Lydie’s story and that seems counter-intuitive as Stephanie’s past holds the bigger and starker horrors.

But despite a few breaks in tone and a loose story-line that sometimes merely skimmed the surface of some proffered issues, Stephanie Daley is a great indie flick, a flick with heart and soul, a flick that has quite a bit to say and goes about saying it in an eloquent, artistic manner that renders one both engaged and impressed.