Late Bloomers (2023)

This review took place during the St. Louis International Film Festival November 17-19.

Late Bloomers, a film directed by Lisa Steen and written by Anna Greenfield, does something I haven’t seen in a long time: it uses its story to lean into the mean-spirited, egotistical behaviors of nearly all its characters. The plot revolves around Louise (Karen Gillan), a late twenty-something who has not healed from her lousy breakup and refuses to move on. Her refusal to move forward causes her to drink too much and stalk her ex-boyfriend. Because she makes this egregious choice, she falls from his window and breaks her hip. During rehab, she meets a cantankerous older woman named Antonina (Margaret Sophie Stein), who is more resistant to change and being a better person than she is. Against all odds, the two bond and, without solid communication, become friends.

As I said in the opening, this film relies heavily on mean-spirited egotistical behavior. I have spent the past day trying to decide whether I like that approach to storytelling. The answer is no. No, I’m not too fond of it or think it’s a clever way to move a story or its characters forward. Louise is mean not just because of the loss of a partner but also because she neglected the care of her mother, who was in the depth of dealing with the severe aspects of late-stage Alzheimer’s. While being a full-time caregiver must be daunting in my mind, it is no reason to go on continuous drinking benders and lash out at anyone nearest your range of hearing, especially friends.

Karen Gillian does an admirable job in the role of Louise, but I didn’t warm up to her until she pushed to get her life back on track. She is undoubtedly a capable performer, but this character did not showcase the range of her skill as an actor or her ability to make a story work for her. Instead, her anger and resentment became all she was known for. Margaret Sophie Stein Gibbs had an admirable performance despite being unable to say much in English for the character she plays. Stein showcases some of the best face acting I have ever seen in a film, and it gives the character and her performance so much life. It is disappointing that Karen cannot do the same with her character of Louise as the vulnerability that is supposed to be there only becomes prominent toward the film’s end, and by then, it is way too late.

Late Bloomers is ultimately a film with promise that fails on every emotional level. The writer and their director should know that you can’t make a character so profoundly unlikeable for so long and then root for redemption when they are constantly being self-destructive. In my opinion, it doesn’t make for good viewing. I hope, unlike myself, that the audience has a more potent form of sympathy for Louise because you can only hope a person like that gets better over time and blooms into the great human being they were supposed to be all along.