Janet Planet

Zoe Ziegler and Julianne Nicholson

Annie Baker's Janet Planet is an impressive film debut from the talented and prolific playwright. The film chronicles the travails of the titular acupuncturist (Julianne Nicholson) who is a single mother raising an eleven year old daughter named Lacy (Zoe Ziegler) somewhere in the hinterlands of western Massachusetts in 1991. Lacy is overly dependent and has boundary issues with her mother, even begging to share her bed. The film opens with Janet taking Lacy home from camp after Lacy has threatened suicide if not taken home forthwith. The duo are an airtight cell with Lacy being the dominant personality. Janet succinctly describes Lacy as "forthright and aggressive." Lacy mopes around a lot, passive aggressively undermining Janet's other relationships. The deliberate pace of the film may be off-putting to some, but I thought it fit Baker's aim. Janet Planet evokes the lazy, hazy days of pre-adolescence just before the tumult of puberty. Lacy is savoring the languor of her last days of childhood, though she is too obstinate to know it.

The film is divided into three sections and a coda. Each section named after an interloper who threatens the supremacy of Lacy's relationship with her mother. Wayne (Will Patton) is a traumatized lout who is deep sixed by Janet after Lacy has convinced her of his hopelessness. Next is Regina (Sophie Okonedo), an English woman and former friend of Janet, who rooms with them after leaving a cult. Regina seems a bit of a sponge and soon clashes with Janet. Regina retreats back to the cult which is led by the bearded sage, Ari (Elias Koteas getting to channel the charisma he hasn't unleashed since Cronenberg's Crash). Ari seizes this opportunity to court Janet, reading her poetry while they picnic, but the relationship ends in an ellipsis. In the coda, we see Janet joining a contra dance group and obviously enjoying the socialization. Lacy sits on the sidelines and has a good sulk. Perhaps, in a year or two, she will join the dance.

Julianne Nicholson's lead performance is taut and unassuming, her fellow players are also exemplary. Baker's skill with dialogue and characterization should be no surprise to theater goers, but it is her firm visual sense that grounds Janet Planet. Baker and cinematographer Maria von Hausswolf's compositions utilize the full screen in a deadpan style that displays alienation and affection towards the Americana of piano lessons, shopping malls, and ice cream stands. A close-up is devoted to blintzes heating up in an antique and mammoth microwave. A funny and evocative note to this child of the Seventies. I also appreciated Baker's balanced view of the New Age milieu of Janet Planet which has largely been a target of satire in the American cinema for a hundred years or so with the possible exception of Lost Horizon. I'm a very rational, Western type guy, but I can't see how environmentalism, Rilke, and Buddhism have hurt the American psyche. Janet Planet is a balm to the eye and a boon to the soul.