What Maisie Knew

It doesn't happen often but sometimes you just want to climb into a movie and give the characters a smack. But, you know, in a good way.

Maisie (Onata) is the six-year-old daughter of Julianne Moore, a Patti Smith rocker type, and suave art dealer Steve Coogan, who are on the verge of breaking up. Coogan wins custody of his daughter, taking her home to live with Maisie’s former nanny and now Coogan's lover, Joanna Vanderham, while Moore hooks up with nice guy bartender Skarsgard. Through some strange developments, and complete lack of responsibility on behalf of her parents, it's Vanderham and Skarsgard who, separately, assume role of Maisie's carers and it's with this unlikely pair she forms a trusting relationship with.

With a compelling adaptation of Henry James' novel, the inspiration for which sprang from his distress at what divorce was doing to children at the turn of the 20th century, this update from the directing duo of Scott McGehee and David Siegel (Bee Season) tackles James' themes but also broaches the contemporary malaise where self-concerned parents think that that their needs are just as, if not more, important than the needs of their offspring. And that their offspring should understand this.

Seen through the eyes of Maisie, the audience is only given snippets of what's going on, but we can piece together the information and this dramatic irony really gives McGehee and Siegel room to tug those heart strings. In scene where Moore drops Maisie off at the door of Skarsgard's bar because she has a gig and we know it's not his shift that night, Maisie knows too but she's too young to articulate and it's horrible watching this unfold. The heart breaks too when the tongue-tied Coogan struggles to explain that he might be moving to London while Maisie will stay in New York. Those who reckon Coogan will never escape the shadow of Partridge should watch this.

If there is a criticism, it's that the characters can veer too close to caricature – no one is as distant as Coogan, or as callous as Moore, or as goody-goody as Skarsgard - and things get far too neat but if you want a story to touch a nerve, this is the one.