"There's a moment early on in Kelly O'Sullivan and Alex Thompson's Mouse that comes so suddenly, so awkwardly that it immediately feels like it must have been drawn from real life. It involves a passing jogger telling high-school junior Minnie (Katherine Mallen Kupferer), "I'm supposed to say sorry, or whatever," before continuing on his way. The line is delivered in such offhand, clumsy fashion that we don't quite understand what it means at first, and neither does Minnie."
"Mouse, which is premiering at the Berlin Film Festival, is all about moments and feelings and people that don't quite fit. It's a tale of grief, but O'Sullivan and Thompson (whose masterful Ghostlight, one of my favorite films of 2024, similarly portrayed the uncomfortable aftermath of loss) focus on the inevitable human messiness that follows. When we first meet Minnie, she's a shy teen living in the shadow of her popular best friend, Callie (Chloe Coleman)."
Minnie is a shy high-school junior whose identity revolves around her popular, talented best friend Callie, who dreams of attending Juilliard. When Callie suddenly dies, Minnie experiences visceral devastation and struggles to exist without her. Embarrassed by her overworked single mother and their small house, Minnie gravitates toward Callie's elegant, grieving mother Helen and begins inhabiting parts of Callie's life, including driving her car and performing Callie's song for a school memorial. The film concentrates on awkward, everyday moments—offhand, clumsy gestures—that reveal how grief produces human messiness and dislocation.
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