SXSW Film

The Dish & The Spoon

Anyone who's wondered what it would look like if a film really let actress Greta Gerwig have at it will find an answer in The Dish & the Spoon, Alison Bagnall's funny, melancholy tale of betrayed wife Rose and the odd teenage drifter (Alexander) she picks up on her pained, frantic search for her husband's lover. Gerwig is the kinetic center of the film, at once solid in her body and possessing the panicked frailty of the heartbroken. Against the backdrop of a Northeast seaside town in winter, the two draw closer – the boy becomes quietly attentive, and Rose becomes more vulnerable – but it's a testament to Bagnall and co-writer Andrew Lewis' acutely tuned script and Gerwig's particular talent for the all-out that we never lose our sense of Rose as a real woman – strong, funny, messed-up, truly beautiful – albeit one we can't understand why anyone would ever risk losing.

Thursday, March 17, 2:30pm, Alamo Lamar C