It seems counterintuitive to believe Minnie (Katherine Mallen Kupferer) could survive just about anything in “Mouse” as she endures a truly vicious variation of “Truth or Dare” called “Personal Feedback” when it’s clear that a little bit dies inside the teen every time she’s called by the nickname that gives the film its title, but spending the night at her friend Callie’s (Callie Bell) house where their mutual Cara (Audrey Grace Marshall) is compelled to tell the unvarnished truth as she sees it, she is hit by the worst insult you could possibly level at that age when Cara dismisses her as being forgettable and the fact she makes it through to the next morning suggests she’ll be alright for years to come. It’s why when an actual tragedy hits in Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson’s phenomenal third feature, the concern is never whether Minnie will pull through, but how.
For those that have followed O’Sullivan and Thompson’s career since making such a strong impression with their debut “Saint Frances,” “Mouse” already comes with a bit of history when it’s well-known that it was intended to be their second feature but was considered a bit too ambitious and they made “Ghostlight,” about a family grieving the death of their only son, instead. The Oscar nominee in the cast (Sophie Okonedo) and the needle drops appropriate to the film’s 2002 milieu (welcome Michelle Branch!) are markers of a bigger budget, but that’s hardly the right way to measure their ambition with the drama that operates with the same intimacy and light touch as any of their previous films yet impressively gets its arms around something more abstract as it tracks Minnie chasing self-confidence, looking everywhere else but within.
While Callie can be relied to give Minnie a boost when she’s down, she can’t help but feel she’s still lurking in the shadows when all the things that have come easily to her friend – her charisma, self-assurance and by extension, popularity – make them seem even further away from her, but she strikes up a friendship with Callie’s mother Helen (Okonedo), who can feel just as alienated in the small town they share in Arkansas where she is forever an outsider as a Brit and whose big house, paid for in part by her work as a world-class concert pianist, can pretty feel empty. The place may have lost its charm for Helen, who is already thinking about what she’ll do after Callie graduates high school and leaves the nest, but Minnie is enchanted by it, less so for its luxurious amenities than the stability it suggests when she has to return to a far more modest home where her mother Barbara (Tara Mallen) can’t always be counted on to put food on the table when she works long hours for a veterinarian and spends what time she does have to herself looking after a toddler and two rescue dogs rather than her daughter.
O’Sullivan’s facility with uneasy conversations really shines as “Mouse” surfaces blind spots for all three, particularly when they have to grapple with a sudden and incalculable loss, and the film hones in on how each of the characters can hold onto what only they know a little too tightly and strength will come from feeling comfortable enough to share. It’s beautifully expressed how just as there are things about Callie that only Minnie knows from being her classmate that Helen can’t, Helen takes any complaints Minnie has about her mother with a grain of salt when it’s clear she’s too young to understand all the responsibilities that Barbara has, keeping a roof over their head, but looking out for one another actually can become damaging when an abundance of caution prevents conversation. Then again, what breaks the dam between Minnie and Helen is the fact that they aren’t related to each other or of the same age, finding that the outside perspective can be helpful and the film understands all of its characters so deeply across a spectrum of experiences, the exchanges between them are genuinely electrifying.
Curiously, a simple description of “Mouse” can strongly resemble “Ghostlight” as if the latter was a warm-up when Minnie is intent on performing at a school talent show, providing a narrative throughline as the question persists whether she’ll have the guts to take the stage, particularly when her choice to sing doesn’t fit with what her natural talents are. Art may have had cathartic powers before, but all it offers here is a dream role for David Hyde Piece, who looks as if he’s been waiting all his life to slip on a natty sweater and have unkempt hair as surely one of his own instructors did along the way to play Minnie’s drama teacher. Instead, when circumstance calls on Minnie to belt out a big Broadway number, it’s the feeling of being miscast in your own life that proves to be the great awakening, making a terrible rendition that takes all the strength in the world to perform more beautiful than something soulless performed with grace. O’Sullivan and Thompson may make it look easy themselves to create a world in which no one feels out of place, but “Mouse” sneaks up to pack a wallop because of everything going on below the surface.
“Mouse” will screen again at Berlinale on February 14th at 10:45 pm at the Hause der Berliner Festspiele, February 15th at 8:30 pm at Cubix 7, February 16th at 8 pm at the Yorck Kino, February 18th at 1 pm at the Cubix 6 and February 21st at 10 pm at Urania.