She Came to Me

Another year, another somewhat middling Berlinale opener. While doing press for her latest project, Anne Hathaway (pulling double duty as star and producer) described She Came to Me as “sort of an operatic comedy”. She’s correct: it’s sort of operatic, it’s sort of funny. It’s definitely a comfortable stroll along the middle ground, but don’t assume that there’s anything too negative about this observation.

Steven (Peter Dinklage) is an opera composer experiencing a block of the creative kind. His marriage to Patricia (Hathaway), a therapist with a mania for cleaning, chugs along harmlessly enough. An unexpected encounter with tugboat captain Katrina (Marisa Tomei), who has a diagnosed addiction to love and romance (yes, really), offers a chance to pull him out of his professional and personal rut – although it won’t be smooth sailing.

In addition to its generic sitcom title, She Came to Me threatens to become quite cartoonish, quite quickly. Well done to the cast (particularly Tomei and Hathaway) for pitching their characters as dramatic creations to whom inherently funny things keep happening. It gives proceedings a droll perspective and reins in the worst excesses of the writing. It also permits a sense of escalation, as the intertwined lives of the central trio become increasingly absurdist and screwball.

Writer/director Rebecca Miller sharply avoids many of the traps hinted at in the early stages of the film. She Came to Me is more than a brittle analysis of the foibles of people who can afford to be cultural. Its characters experience growth, and the whole thing is crafted with enough grace to make an audience care about the journey. Yes, it doesn’t quite hold up the weight of its own ideas, and the end result is ever so slightly stark; but, in Miller’s deft hands, the journey provides lowkey satisfaction. 

Oliver Johnston

She Came to Me does not have a UK release date yet.

Read more reviews from our Berlin Film Festival 2023 coverage here.

For further information about the event visit the Berlin Film Festival website here.