The story takes place when the teenage Louise Brooks (Haley Lu Richardson) leaves Wichita for New York City. She has been accepted to a major dancing academy and has no doubt that she'll be asked to join their dancing troupe. She is, as required at the time, accompanied by a chaperone, Norma Carlisle (Elizabeth McGovern). The spirited Louise and the proper Norma seem to have little in common other than wanting to be in New York City. But we soon learn that there is more to Norma than meets the eye. A couple of surprises explain Norma's earlier behavior in her interactions with her husband (Campbell Scott) as well as her later behavior as the story progresses. McGovern and Richardson share most of the screen time along with some brief appearances by Amanda Otto, Blythe Danner and Géza Röhrig. I continue to be impressed with Richardson who came to my attention, in 2016, in Split and The Edge Of Seventeen.

This could have been a much more illustrative tale of the life of the gorgeous Louise Brooks - a star who straddled the end of the silent era before becoming a star of the talkies too. Sadly, though - it focuses on the rather less interesting story of her guardian "Norma" (Elizabeth McGovern) and of her own detective work to find her birth mother having recently discovered that she is an orphan. The film looks stylish and authentic, and the score sets a nice tone for the story but it just backed the wrong horse for me. Brooks's was the character i was way more intrigued by - and though the effort from Haley Lu Richardson in that role is competent, she doesn't get anywhere near enough screen time to really demonstrate this actress's fairly turbulent career. It is illustrative of the role of women in the 1920s - the USA being no different from any other parts of the world on that front, but the melodrama surrounding the rather selfish, thoughtless "Norma" who puts her own needs well ahead of anyone else's left me a bit cold. It is watchable, but has something of the Merchant Ivory-light about it.

This is a delightful and moving story set in the 20s that has some surprisingly modern themes that come through. Elizabeth McGovern shows a range of acting she wasn't able to display in Downton Abbey. She is touching and very sympathetic as a lady married to a gay man who takes a break and accompanies a young Dancer to NYC. Haley Lu Richardson is sweet as the dancer but she doesn't have a dancer's body or form. Eye opening look at norms of the past.

Very enjoyable.