“Is this your life?” Misha (Mitzi Akaha) asks Kenzie (Jessica Jade Andres) in “Chaperone,” looking on as her friend tries to wrangle her baby while the two are at a birthday party. It probably isn’t the right thing to say when Misha has already disappointed Kenzie in their other relationship at work, declining to take a promotion at the local theater where Kenzie wishes someone would help her shoulder some of the responsibility of keeping the century-old landmark alive while Misha is content to work the box office, but at 29, Misha can be content with the life she has even when others around her strive towards typical markers of success and growth, the only real tension in her life occurring when they bring it up since inheriting her grandmother’s old house has meant little income is required.
You can’t question too many of Misha’s choices at the beginning of Zoe Eisenberg’s provocative debut feature when even in the tropical climes of Hawaii, she appears to have carved out her own piece of paradise, rolling out of bed in the morning when she wants, peeking in on rehearsals for whatever entertainment has come to the theater for the day while she’s on the clock and heading home to spend time with her cat Princess Di. However, much as she might not be inclined to shake up such a laid-back existence, life comes for her anyway in the form of Jake (Laird Akeo), an 18-year-old bagboy at the grocery store who attempts to charm her by juggling apples. He can be forgiven for not knowing Misha’s age when hitting on her, considering she still wears her own high school shirts around town and hasn’t cut her bangs, but as things become a little more serious between the pair, it becomes less and less justifiable that she doesn’t bring it up, giving away the game when she tells Jake at one point that to stay the night he doesn’t need to lie to his mother Georgia (Krista Alvarez) about his whereabouts, he just doesn’t need to tell the truth.
That gray area in between isn’t just where Misha lives, but where Eisenberg finds real vitality in “Chaperone” when she isn’t apt to condemn her heroine or celebrate her either, but recognizes her as someone who for better or worse has put off making any hard choices and is finally confronted with one she can’t avoid. When the writer/director sets up Misha’s history of placing her own comfort above all other concerns, her reticence to disclose her 11-year age gap to Jake seems less lurid and Akaha and Akeo have real chemistry together, opening up a more intriguing drama than its May December premise generally promises and although there may be some overkill when the inevitable revelation occurs, it really does feel like the world collapses on Misha, who has perhaps been seen as lacking ambition by traditional standards, but strenuously constructed a routine that would never demand too much of her.
Rather than linger on the ethics of Misha’s relationship with Jake when there’s no question it’s a road to ruin, Eisenberg admirably invests time instead in considering how it isn’t the specific relationship to him that’s likely irresistible, but having any romantic relationship at all when it would be so much easier not to engage, creating an unusual dynamic where the danger isn’t only in someone discovering her real age, but simply making herself so vulnerable in other respects. “Chaperone” feels uniquely contemporary as a result when it captures mid-twenties malaise so acutely, but Eisenberg also knows when to lean into a tried-and-true formula for entertainment’s sake when a couple might be right for one another in every way except for their age, becoming at least one person on the production to exhibit wisdom beyond their years.
“Chaperone” will screen again at the Mill Valley Film Fest on October 7th at 4:30 pm at the Rafael 2.