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Sometimes, when we’re stuck, inspiration can come when and where we least expect it. And in writer/director Rebecca Miller’s romantic comedy She Came to Me, a struggling artist finds inspiration in an unexpected place—only to have the experience come back to haunt him later.
She Came to Me stars Peter Dinklage as Steven, an opera composer who’s been blocked and mentally unstable for the past five years. Though he’s been working with his therapist-turned-wife, Patricia (Anne Hathaway), he can’t seem to come up with anything new. But then he meets Katrina (Marisa Tomei), a visiting tugboat captain with a romance addiction—and after an ill-advised one-night stand, he finds himself inspired to compose again. Steven’s new opera is a success—but when Katrina becomes obsessed with him, believing herself to be his muse, it shakes up his once orderly life.
But the growing chaos and disorder of Steven’s situation is just the beginning of the turmoil for this struggling composer and his family—and the more chaotic it gets, the stranger it gets. Patricia (whom her husband still calls “Doc”) is an obsessive neat freak who suddenly finds herself reconnecting with her Catholic upbringing and dreaming of starting a new life as a nun. And her teenage son, Julian (Evan Ellison), ends up in a relationship that puts his promising future at risk.
What plays out feels like an awkward blend of over-the-top wackiness and heavy family drama. Everything here is more than a little off-balance. With its mix of Steven’s head-scratching operas, the looming threat of a legal battle with Julian’s girlfriend’s controlling dad, and Marisa Tomei’s scruffy tugboat operator who trolls seedy bars for her next conquest, it’s hard to get a grasp of what this film is trying to be—and why.
Perhaps, without Julian’s story, with its heavy drama and societal issues, this film could have been a quirky and absurdist rom-com. After all, it boasts a remarkable cast—all of whom fully commit to this bizarre tale of the messiness of love. But the stars and their performances can’t transform this film into anything more than just a strange story about some problematic romantic entanglements.
She Came to Me definitely has plenty of quirks and wacky humor—but none of it feels natural. Instead, it feels like the director was trying to make an edgy art house romance—but it turned out to be unintentionally, uncomfortably comical.
She Came to Me debuts in theaters on October 6, 2023.
Listen to the review on Reel Discovery:
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