The Ballad of Jack and Rose

Jack lives on an island. He is the last member of a commune founded in the seventies; the others left years ago and he stayed with his daughter. Rose is sixteen, has not been to school and knows nobody but her father. Jack's heart is failing and he knows he is going to die. So that she will not be left alone he brings his girlfriend and her two sons into the house. Rose does not accept it. Rebecca Miller writes and directs. Daniel Day-Lewis plays Jack, Camilla Belle plays Rose and Catherine Keener plays Kathleen. Rebecca Miller and Daniel Day-Lewis are married in life and this is the best known instance of that collaboration. The subject is the personal cost of a utopia. Jack goes on living the life he believes in and his daughter pays for it; the film presents him as neither hero nor culprit. The construction on the mainland is the second layer; Jack fights the housing development going up across the water and the fight grows steadily more absurd. Isolation is a threat inside the narrative; the relationship between father and daughter goes somewhere uncomfortable and the film does not hide it. It was made at independent scale and screened at Sundance. Who it is for: viewers who like American independent drama and Daniel Day-Lewis. Who it is not for: the pace is slow, the subject is uncomfortable, and some supporting characters have no function.