Directed by Alex Thompson
Written by Kelly O’Sullivan
Starring Kelly O’Sullivan, Charin Alvarez, Ramona Edith-Williams, Lily Mojekwu and Max Lipchitz
MPAA rating: R for sex, language, and adult situations
Running time: 1 hour and 46 minutes

by Audrey Callerstrom

Although Saint Frances hits a lot of familiar indie beats (and is a bit too long) it is a sincere story about how women struggle with identity at an age when their peers are having children. The film introduces us to Bridget (Kelly O’Sullivan, who also wrote the film) at a party, bored listening to a man’s story about his recurring dream. In it, he’s in a small, one-bedroom apartment (not unlike the one Bridget lives in) and he can’t find his wife and kids anywhere. Realizing he has to live a solitary life, he jumps out a window. In essence, if he had to live Bridget’s life, he’d rather be dead. He asks her what she does for a living and she says, with a dismissive tone, that she’s a server. “Well, you’re in your 20s,” he says. “I’m 34,” she says. Pause. Later she meets another guy at the party, the young and affable Jace (Max Lipchitz). Finding out that he is also a server, they leave to have sex.