Ginger & Rosa

2013

Ginger & Rosa

Critics Consensus

Elle Fanning gives a terrific performance in this powerful coming-of-age tale about a pair of teenage girls whose friendship is unnerved by the threat of nuclear war.

79%

TOMATOMETER

Total Count: 111

50%

Audience Score

User Ratings: 6,659

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Movie Info

London, 1962. Two teenage girls - GINGER & ROSA - are inseparable. They skip school together, talk about love, religion and politics and dream of lives bigger than their mothers' domesticity. But the growing threat of nuclear war casts a shadow over their lives. Ginger (Elle Fanning) is drawn to poetry and protest, while Rosa (Alice Englert) shows Ginger how to smoke cigarettes, kiss boys and pray. Both rebel against their mothers: Rosa's single mum, Anoushka (Jodhi May), and Ginger's frustrated painter mother, Natalie (Christina Hendricks). Meanwhile, Ginger's pacifist father, Roland (Alessandro Nivola) seems a romantic, bohemian figure to the girls. He encourages Ginger's 'Ban-the-Bomb' activism, while Rosa starts to take a very different interest in him. As Ginger's parents fight and fall apart, Ginger finds emotional sanctuary with a gay couple, both named Mark (Timothy Spall and Oliver Platt), and their American friend, the poet Bella (Annette Bening). Finally, as the Cuban Missile Crisis escalates - and it seems the world itself may come to an end - the lifelong friendship of the two girls is shattered. Ginger clutches at one hope; if she can help save the world from extinction, perhaps she too will survive this moment of personal devastation. (c) A24
  • Rating:
    PG-13 (for mature disturbing thematic material involving teen choices - sexuality, drinking, smoking, and for language)
  • Genre:
    Drama
  • Directed By:
    Sally Potter
  • Written By:
    Sally Potter
  • In Theaters:
     limited
  • On Disc/Streaming:
  • Box Office:
    $1,005,700
  • Runtime:
  • Studio:
    A24 Films

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Cast

Elle Fanning
as Ginger
Alessandro Nivola
as Roland
Christina Hendricks
as Natalie
Alice Englert
as Rosa
Jodhi May
as Anoushka
Annette Bening
as Bella
Oliver Platt
as Mark
Timothy Spall
as Mark
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Critic Reviews for Ginger & Rosa

All Critics (111) | Top Critics (34)

  • Coming from anyone else, Ginger & Rosa would be a sensitive if predictable coming-of-age tale set in the mists of the distant past. But coming from writer-director Sally Potter, it's a major surprise.

    Mar 29, 2013 | Rating: 3/4 | Full Review…

    Rick Groen

    Globe and Mail
    Top Critic

  • Fanning is nearly perfect as Ginger navigates choppier waters than most teens have to. There is not a false note in her performance; no matter how melodramatic things become, everything about Ginger remains genuine.

    Mar 28, 2013 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…

    Bill Goodykoontz

    Arizona Republic
    Top Critic

  • Elle Fanning is scary. Scarily good.

    Mar 28, 2013 | Rating: 3.5/4 | Full Review…

    Steven Rea

    Philadelphia Inquirer
    Top Critic

  • In all respects, this is the completely captivating Fanning's picture.

    Mar 28, 2013 | Rating: 3/4 | Full Review…

    Linda Barnard

    Toronto Star
    Top Critic

  • Potter has a rich compositional eye, but she wisely trims the fat from the dialogue, which dances around most of the melodrama until an explosive last act.

    Mar 28, 2013 | Full Review…

    Joe Williams

    St. Louis Post-Dispatch
    Top Critic

  • What hurt, nuanced terror and exhilaration there is in Sally Potter's beautiful coming-of-age drama Ginger & Rosa.

    Mar 22, 2013 | Rating: 3.5/4

    Lisa Kennedy

    Denver Post
    Top Critic
View All Critic Reviews (111)

Audience Reviews for Ginger & Rosa

  • Jul 25, 2013
    Elle Fanning's performance and Sally Potter's beautiful direction and wonderful utilization of 1960s atmosphere allows Ginger & Rosa to become more than the sum of its parts. It's a coming of age story and a period piece all rolled in to one, but more importantly its a character study that miraculously transfers the protagonist's deeply emotional internal tension to the audience with incredible power.
    Sam B Super Reviewer
  • Apr 01, 2013
    As corny as this may sound, Ginger(Elle Fanning) and Rosa(Alice Englert) are well-nigh impossible to separate since before they were born when their respective mothers(Christina Hendricks & Jodhi May) met in a maternity ward in 1945. Together, they confront their nuclear fears in different ways. Ginger takes to protests and meetings while Rosa finds religion. While Rosa has never really known her father, Ginger has Roland(Alessandro Nivola) as her father, as he prefers to be known to her, when he is not sleeping elsewhere which includes his boat. As Roland puts it, he refused to enter the military during World War II, and was jailed for his beliefs, the worst part being in solitary, but is too self-righteous to wonder why people did not act differently than he did. Ever since her first feature, the classic "Orlando," Sally Potter's films have sadly been a prime case of diminishing returns. With her latest, the evocative, yet flawed "Ginger & Rosa" which moves to its own syncopated rhythm to match the jazz records on the soundtrack, she arrests that trend somewhat by thoughtfully exploring the connection between the personal and the political while not being the first person to conflate nuclear family and nuclear explosions. By having another red-headed protagonist who seeks to be a poet, Potter is saying there is nothing greater to fear than being alone at a time in 1962 when the world was facing nuclear annihilation, which concerned citizens responded with protests in England. Note to self: get a jazz band for the next protest.
    Walter M Super Reviewer
  • Oct 22, 2012
    It seems while Dakota Fanning was in the U.K filming the detestable "Now is Good", her much more talented little sister, Elle, was in the same country shooting Sally Potter's latest. It's a cliched 1960's coming of age tale which mixes the plots of "The Squid & the Whale" and this year's "Albatross" but lacks the charm of either. In recent years we've become used to seeing American movies starring Brits but here it's a reversal with most of the lead roles played by Americans. Robbie Ryan's cinematography and Fanning's performance are both commendable but otherwise there's little of interest on display.
    The Movie W Super Reviewer
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