A shaggy dog story most likely to connect with viewers whose lives are similarly shaggy, “She Keeps Me Young” is undeniably slight, but also unexpectedly sharp.
First-time filmmaker Doron Max Hagay wrote the script with his two leads, who build a lived-in discomfort that keeps their simple story alternately amusing and unsettling.
Blair Beeken (“Pluribus”) stars as Michelle, a quiet, middle-aged woman living what many would consider a quiet, middle-aged life. She works in an eyeglass store, she meets her best friend Kelly (Katy Fullan) for lunch salads in their strip mall, and she takes a hip-hop class for exercise and, maybe, fun? It’s hard to tell, since she rarely expresses much excitement; she’s the kind of person who turns down the opportunity to move from salesperson to manager because it would be too stressful.
Turns out, though, that she has reason to be stressed. Her fiancé went on a hiking trip a few years back, and just … never returned. She considers him “still missing,” and it eventually becomes clear — to us, if not to her — that she’s stuck. Kelly is trying to push her forward by taking her shopping, arranging dates and organizing parties. But Michelle only breaks free from her malaise when she meets Bridget (Shay Rudolph). Bridget is currently shooting a range of women for a photography project, and Michelle has the look she needs. They get together and connect immediately; soon they’re talking, and then hanging out, every day. Suddenly, Michelle’s life is looking up.
The only problem is, Bridget is a 17-year-old high school student.
Michelle doesn’t see any issue; why should friendship have an age limit?
Kelly, on the other hand, is appalled. She’s determined to put an end to Michelle’s poor choices, to such an intense degree that we’re soon left to wonder whose behavior is actually toxic here.
The small supporting cast (including John Early and Kate Berlant) pops in and out briefly, to provide some slight color. (Cinematographer Joshua Hill keeps the palette as bland as the series of generic apartments and chain restaurants requires.) And while Fullan makes Kelly’s motivations crystal clear, it’s Beeken’s deceptively deadpan approach that pushes the film into deeper territory.
With the exception of Bridget, played to Gen-Z perfection by Rudolph, none of the characters seem particularly driven to examine their own motivations. But it’s this tension, between action and intent, that gives the modest plot just enough juice to keep us interested.
Hagay, Fullan and especially Beeken have turned their little drama into a challenge: Will we stick with this small story and these small lives? And thus, as they themselves have done, find something considerably bigger within them? For anyone who can relate to Michelle’s bone-deep inertia, the answer is likely to be yes.
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