I didn’t have much expectations going in other than the intriguing cast. I am sure that is a selling point for many. As I sat in the theater as only one of four people in attendance, I was sure it was due to it just being a Wednesday night. Considering how minimal the marketing was (I honestly didn’t realize this was coming out so soon), it is not surprising this hasn’t gained a whole lot of traction. Indies will do that. With a cast like this though, not only would you think that it would at least be talked about more, but the end product would have been much better.

I am genuinely not disappointed that I went to go see this. Frankly, I am never really disappointed in anything that I want to see. I love film no matter what, but I can see the potential on the wall with things that could have been much better and you can throw this movie in there. The film starts off strong. We can a pretty good insight into Peter Dinklage’s character that shows more than what has to be told. Very little is said about his character. You just get a good sense of him. Ten minutes in, the sudden jolt into what appeared to be a completely different movie only showed that the film was about to go off the rails.

Ten minutes in, I literally thought a brand new movie started playing. The widescreen aspect ratio suddenly went to a 1.19:1 aspect ratio that makes the scenes look tighter. A new set of characters are introduced with no mention as to who they really are and how they relate to the overall story. A pervy, racist father is introduced and has more screen time than he should. His goal looks like to get the daughter he adopted to himself. Problem is that his daughter is dating the step-son of Peter Dinklage’s character & biological son of Anne Hathaway’s character. Even typing that out brings me back to just how random and jarring this all is.

As it tries to go back to Dinklage’s story, the film feels like its getting itself back on track. The characterization on him is exceptional. He’s super successful, yet very uncomfortable with who he is. It allows his character to be brought down to Earth and become relatable with viewers. When he meets Marisa Tomei’s character, it continues to be interesting, even if some questionable things occur. How did her character think what she was doing was okay when Dinklage clearly has a wedding ring on his finger? It’s odd behavior.

Then there is Anne Hathaway’s character. This is probably one of the best roles that she has been in years as her character has to struggle with wanting to be someone that she feels destined to be, which is to be a nun. It’s interesting; however, it comes across very randomly. Considering that she has been a mom, a wife, and a therapist for so long, why the sudden urge to become a nun? It almost felt like the writing tried to literally make a story out of every single character no matter what. At this point, it was clear that three scripts were blended into one resulting in very disproportionate results.

As mentioned, there is a change in the aspect ratio not only after the first ten minutes of the film, but throughout the entire film. I don’t really understand why this style continues to be attempted. It was attempted in 2019’s Lucy in the Sky to disastrous results. The same can be applied here. Between the changes in story and cinematography, the film really struggles with creating an identify of its own, because its constant changes prove that it never knows what it wants to be.

I do believe there is a good film here though, because there are certainly good qualities of the film. The story does give the actors the opportunities to show their strengths as they are all quite good in the film. The story between Dinklage & Tomei is at the film’s strongest as it deals with the most complexity. When the cinematography focuses on only one style, it is quite good. As much as I didn’t care for the sudden changes, I do have to say that whenever it is in widescreen mode, it looks very cinematic, while when it is in the tighter aspect ratio, it perfectly frames the characters to create more intimate moments.

SPOILERS

The conclusion does have a nice way to wrap it all up and show how the three story come together, even if its complicated journey of getting there wasn’t completely necessary. Issues are resolved immediately. Peter Dinklage & Marisa Tomei are, I guess, living happily ever after together. Marisa Tomei, I also guess, never needed recovery. The father seems to not be a problem at the end, so what was the point of focusing so much on him? Then there is Anne Hathaway immediately becoming a nun, showing how the film doesn’t understand time.

Mentioning of time, the structure of the film makes the timeline quite confusing. One moment, Dinklage falls into a body of water, losing his dog. The next, he is already preparing an opera for his recent encounter. After that, the dog is shown to be no longer missing. How much time passed with this? Who knows. That’s just one example of others of how truly jarring this is.

END SPOILERS

Overall, She Came to Me is a weird balancing act experiment that has all of the right ingredients – talented cast, complex characters, smart writing, exceptional cinematography – but also manages to waste it convoluted plot lines that go in meaningless directions resulting in a chaotic structure and dull pacing. I encourage people to still see it, but I don’t know about seeing it in the theater.

VERDICT: Okay