The cherubically pretty Zoe Kazan – 26-year-old granddaughter of Elia Kazan – has already been seen in Sam Mendes's Revolutionary Road, playing the fatale-innocent secretary with whom Leonardo DiCaprio has his sordid fling. Now she has her first leading role in this downbeat American indie drama from writer-director Bradley Rust Gray. Not quite mumblecore, it's more murmurcore, sighcore and snapping-shut-the-mobile-phone-core, and characterised by lo-fi acting from characters filmed in intimate closeup or else in a type of surveillance long-shot, chatting on the streets or in coffee shops, often partly obscured by traffic or passers-by.
Kazan plays Ivy, a student back in the city for spring break, and sharing a ride home with her childhood friend Al (Mark Rendall), a sweet, shy guy who very clearly has feelings for her. Ivy, however, is in the midst of a tricky relationship with an absent college boyfriend, and her loneliness has an extra, poignant dimension. Ivy is an epileptic, a condition which has implanted wariness in her emotional life. She cannot even take a bath without her mom being in the house in case anything happens. A scene in a doctor's surgery informs us that drinking isn't good for Ivy's condition, and neither is emotional stress. So things don't look good when Ivy has a couple of beers at a party, and Al starts confessing to her how he feels.
The way things pan out is not too much of a surprise, but it's a gentle, watchable movie, the more involving for being reticent and withdrawn. With a more powerfully written role, Zoe Kazan could be a contender.
At National Film Theatre, London, tonight. Box office: 020-7928 3232.
