Review of Damsels in Distress (2012) by Daniel M — 27 May 2012

After a nearly-15-year hiatus from filmmaking, Whit Stillman ("Metropolitan") is back with "Damsels in Distress," starring Indie It Girl Greta Gerwig. I was quite excited about Stillman's return, but, alas, the film never comes together. It's not terrible, but much of it does not work.

Gerwig plays a student at a small secluded liberal-arts college in the Northeast (inspired by Dartmouth maybe?). But it's not so much a character as a comic caricature blown up to absurd proportions. She and her two pals, who are even cruder caricatures, staff a Suicide Prevention Center and are obsessed with helping fellow students avoid depression.

There are many funny lines in this spoof of over-educated lost children, but it's just actors reading funny lines. No one for a second seems like a real person. It's more like a Saturday Night Live sketch than a film. This archly unrealistic approach could work if the satire is scintillating and brilliant. But it's never that good. It's just mildly funny throughout.

Also, for satire really to work, it has to resemble real life to a degree. These caricatures are so over the top that they don't resemble anyone. No college students are this screwed up. The film is not so much poking fun at real people as imagining absurd things. "Damsels" wanted to be satirical but often comes off surreal. Not because the humor was intentionally surrealistic, but because the attempts at satire kept misfiring. It hurts to say this, but I think Stillman's filmmaking career is over.