The Chaperone's quick wrap-up suggests that Norma's snap decision to change her life (by breaking every rule that's guided her narrow existence) somehow results in a seamless transition from frustration and powerlessness to complete happiness and self actualization. That Louise will become an international film star whose persona embodied the iconoclastic flapper of the Jazz Age - the precursor to the modern liberated woman - gives the story more weight than it would otherwise deserve. Performances by the endearing McGovern, who is around twenty years older than the book's character, and the cheeky Richardson are solid and admirable, but they can't overcome a sense that the script feels pat and obvious, relying on both a metaphorical and a real restrictive corset to remind us how repressed women of the time were. Louise gets accepted to study at an elite dance.
LOUISE BROOKS PBS THE CHAPERONE MOVIE
Twists and turns of this movie are alternately predictable and engaging, but for the most part the story seems a bit too timid and neatly tied up to pack the emotional punch it might have had. Based on a true story, the movie begins in 1922 Wichita, Kansas, where a young dancer, Louise Brooks, wants to chase her dreams of performing. In contrast, Louise is so unrestrained, her freedom may end up harming her in a society not yet ready for her. Together these disappointments lead her to take charge of her life. Flashbacks to a trauma in Norma's marriage make it clear that she remains sexually unfulfilled.
When she works around the obstacles and finds her mother, she's faced with the hypocrisy created by more rules that hold women back. Norma was adopted in New York and though she eagerly tries to find out who her parents were, the nuns at her orphanage refuse access to her records. Norma is a prohibitionist and Louise mischievously sneaks out to get drunk at a speakeasy.
LOUISE BROOKS PBS THE CHAPERONE FREE
Although Norma admires Louise's talent and supports her breaking free of certain restraints, they're still at odds. Norma is so starchy she can't even imagine that Louise's candy has already been "unwrapped" and that the girl cares not at all about her prospects for marriage, a form of voluntary bondage in her view. "Men don't like candy that's been unwrapped," Norma advises the bemused Louise. The creator of Downton Abbey wrote the screenplay for The Chaperone, a story ostensibly about legendary silent screen star Louise Brooks first trip to New.
Predictably, Louise feels constrained by the corseted Presbyterian moralist sharing her room. While THE CHAPERONE imagines the story of Wichita-bred movie star Louise Brooks (Haley Lu Richardson) as she heads to New York City of 1922 to study modern dance with the famed Denishawn dance company, the focus is on local matron Norma Carlisle (Elizabeth McGovern), who volunteers to accompany and watch over the 15-year-old in the wicked big city.
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