Through her eyes

What Maisie knew tackles divorce and separation through the eyes of a young girl who is caught between her parent's feud and distance. The film follows her and what she sees and it is her perspective and vision that the audience is shown. Maisie’s life with her paranoid mother and withdrawn father might play out like “a Jacobean tragedy”, but the film does not focus solely on that.

Although the subject of divorce and what it does to the child isn’t something new, the film keeps the girl at the centre and also does not use her vantage point to build stories about the parents and the separation. We do see the shuffling between parents and their new spouses, picking up the pieces and adjusting to life again. We also see that the interests of the child, who is being vied at the time of the divorce proceedings, seem to take a backseat to personal demands and and petty ego.

Although in transferring from parent to parent, the child becomes a casualty of misunderstanding and never-ending feuds, sometimes Maisie’s innocence and brightness seem to make the mishap around her seem less damaged. There is a sense of flow in Maisie’s life as she travels from one guardian to another and even though she might seem suddenly lonely, she immediately pops back to being a happy kid when she is shown love, affection and attention. The movie is precariously balanced on Maisie, who as a child is undergoing sudden and disturbing change in her life. The film and her life may collapse at any moment but somehow, through her vitality and through the kindness of strangers, she manages to stay afloat. 

Grim little sleepy town

ITV’s Broadchurch is about a small town that comes to the forefront when an 11-year-old boy dies under suspicious circumstances. Mostly, the show deals with the aftermath of a young boy's death as the family and the town copes with the onslaught of grief and attention.

The show stars Barty Crouch aka David Tennant as an ill and tired DI Alec Hardy supported by DC Miller, played by Olivia Colman. Doubt is in the air and suspicion fall on everyone who is even remotely linked to the case. Both follow leads and clues and often end up reaching nowhere. There is a lot of misdirection but slowly all the false clues are eliminated.

Small town murder mysteries often remind me of Miss Marple mysteries that are teeming with undercurrents. There are incestuous dealings, gossip and rumour mills, nosy neighbours, and just plain people hiding truth that have nothing to do with the murder. 
(Also reminded me of Murder she wrote, where a sleepy town in Maine becomes the victim of a grim crime, much too often.)

There is a lot of similarity between Broadchurch and the Danish hit Forbrydelson (also called The Killing), which also deals with a single murder throughout the series: A town rocked by an unexpected murder but while Forbrydelson had a political angle attached to it, Broadchurch focuses on the lives of people shattered by the tragedy. I would recommend this series. Although the end might not be very surprising (at least it was not for me), the ride is enjoyable. The scenery is wonderful and spectacular, the dialogues crisp. How a single murder can set off a series of onslaughts has been explored quite well.