In some ways, FRANCES HA feels both like a film I’ve already seen a few times this year, and like a few other classic titles which I adore. But in its own way, the movie brought on feelings of empathy that I didn’t expect to feel, thus catching me unaware by the time the lights came up.

And here was me thinking that very little surprises me anymore.

FRANCES HA is about the plucky Frances Halliday (Greta Gerwig). Frances is 27 and still trying to make it as a dancer in New York City. She isn’t exactly “livin’ the dream”, but she has enough of her shit together. She lives with her best friend Sophie (Mickey Summer), who is so close to her that she and Frances like to joke that they are actually the same person. However, as the film goes on, we see Frances hit a rough stretch personally – which leads her into worse and worse situations.

In some ways, FRANCES HA is a familar story of “twenty-something girl doesn’t know what she wants” that we’ve seen a lot of in film and TV lately. However, what seemed to endear me to Frances more than the others is her refusal to let her bad luck get the better of her. Sure, she fibs now and then to deny letting others on to just how high the shit has piled up, but she never sparks a woe-is-me line of conversation. If anything, she goes to great lengths not to do that, which is probably best exemplified by a particularly heartbreaking moment at the end of her Christmas vacation.

This latest film from Noah Baumbach, besides looking very handsome in its use of black and white, is very funny. Refreshingly, the humour isn’t as snarky and self-loathing as tends to dot a film like this. Instead it is very gallows, dry, and at times absurd.  For those who see this film as too “mumblecore” – which is a fair reluctance given the previous efforts of Noah Baumbach – I would offer that these moments of witty silliness keep things a bit airier than one has come to expect in the genre.

There’s a moment or two that plays a little too cute (especially early on), but the hope and sadness that Gerwig is able to evoke with the role make these moments endearing in the long run as opposed to annoying and overly twee. Gerwig actually deserves even more credit for that balance, since she co-wrote the screenplay for this film with Baumbach.

As the film ended, I actually found myself hoping that Frances would be alright, and that sort of concern doesn’t adhere itself to many of characters I see on-screen these days. That sort of investment has to be the sign of a well-told story and a well-shaped character.