Yahoo Lifestyle ‘Suze’ Review: A Wonderful Michaela Watkins Leads an Understated Delight About Kindred Spirits and Familial Love
If you were to go into the winsome “Suze” blind, you would be forgiven for thinking that co-directors Linsey Stewart and Dane Clark’s sincere and often very funny little gem was some overlooked Nicole Holofcener movie finally getting its due. “Suze” is blessed with the same kind of lived-in attention to detail and authentic character-based drama that makes the “Lovely & Amazing” director’s work so relatable and compulsively rewatchable. As such, this is a smart and emotionally immersive comfort movie where you get the happy with a side of sad in the same way that the messiness of our own lives often unfolds, with laughter and tears served as a pair in a package deal.
That quality permeates the film right from the opening scene, when a blissful couple’s coital moans take over the dark screen, resolving to the pained face of Susan (a brilliant Michaela Watkins), confronted with the sight of an alarming pair of off-camera lovers: She walks in on her husband Alan (Sandy Jobin-Bevans) having an affair with his golf instructor Jacinta (Sorika Wolf). Arguably worse than the infidelity are the couple’s loud “I love you” exchanges, which clearly signal that Susan’s marriage is over.
More from Variety
Jillian Bell on 'Brittany Runs a Marathon': 'This Was the Movie I Wanted to See When I Was 13'
'Casual' Team Reflects on Run and Talks 'Heightened' Final Season
Cut to five years later, and the now-single mom prepares for her feisty daughter Brooke’s (Sara Waisglass) high school graduation. Brooke is bound for college, which the woman who raised her isn’t taking well. Adding stress to the limited time they have together is their frequent houseguest Gage (an instantly lovable Charlie Gillespie, the film’s secret weapon), Brooke’s goofily positive-vibes boyfriend. Endearingly oblivious, Gage insists on calling Susan “Suze,” despite her protests, and often acts like a baby in adult form.
With warmth and wisdom, Clark and Stewart lace their story with countless rich clues into the psyche of this modest group of people. Startled about her new life chapter as a peri-menopausal woman with a college-aged daughter and a boring mid-level job, Susan is undoubtedly a doting mother, but one who often errs on the side of codependency. Watkins delicately portrays Susan as a woman nearing her 50s with her existence stuck in a rut, making you wonder if anyone has asked her lately what she desires in life.
While this is happening, sharp and independent Brooke gradually exposes her self-centered worldview, through which she manipulates her mother and takes advantage of Gage’s goodwill. She happens to be so selfish that everyone except her mother seems to know that she’d be moving to Montreal for college, as opposed to staying at home as previously discussed. More than her daughter’s impending departure, what breaks Susan’s heart is having been left in the dark by the person she was supposed to be the closest with, and humiliated in front of Alan and Jacinta, who are now married and more informed on Brooke’s plans.
Watkins is sophisticated and subtle in navigating Susan’s bumpy journey, which is nostalgically and cheekily paired with Roxette’s “It Must Have Been Love.” (The film’s best use of the song is ironically a cover.) But the more surprising delight of “Suze” is Gillespie and what he does with the harmlessly overenthusiastic Gage. By design, Gage is a happy-go-lucky underachiever (one might even call him a loser), with exaggerated gestures and presence — not exactly the kind Susan would want her daughter to end up with. But what could have become a laughable caricature in a lesser actor’s hands becomes an increasingly complex human being in Gillespie’s. There is something so honest and good-natured about the way he plays Gage that you always detect a hint of real sadness in his extreme glee, and something disarmingly sweet underneath the exasperating surplus his aura exudes.
It isn’t exactly unpredictable that suddenly alone Suze and the cruelly dumped Gage, both abandoned by Brooke, would become accidental friends and allies, slowly building a familial bond while Brooke learns a lesson or two. But Clark and Stewart still manage to give us something unexpected with this storyline, placing the cutesy stuff on the back burner for a while in order to prioritize tougher themes around mental illness, parental neglect, maturing femininity and the way chosen families serve as a support system when the going gets rough. In this quest, we meet Gage’s inattentive parents, as well as a romantic interest that enters Susan’s life unexpectedly. But these characters only further necessitate Gage and Suze’s mother-son-like connection in a cruel world full of negligent players.
“Suze” is ultimately a film about people who deserve better than those who have made them forget their worth. There is no big revelation in the end, except that we all have something to contribute toward the healing and growth of one another. That reminder feels like a tonic these days.
Best of Variety
Sign up for Variety's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
