Review No.19: Tiny Furniture

I don't think there is an actual dictionary definition of an indie film but I think signifiers such as mumbled dialogue, quirky characters and a sense of self-importance all count. Those can all apply to Tiny Furniture the film that won writer/director/star Lena Dunham a first screenplay award at The Independent Spirit Awards two years ago. What's taken it this long to make it to British shores is a mystery but what isn't a mystery is that this tale full of meandering whimsy will end ambiguously. But let's begin at the beginning as Lena's Aura returns home from an Ohio College to her mother's New York loft which she shares with Aura's intellectual sister Nadine who is played by Dunham's real life sister. The film sees Aura trying to figure out her life by getting a job as a hostess at a restaurant, which she is awful at, and reconnect with a horribly selfish high school acquaintance. She also meets up with two men one is a pseudo-intellectual who has made his name with sarcastic YouTube videos and who eventually manipulates himself into her life while the other is a loveable chef who himself as a secret. Meanwhile her mother worries about her, her sister moans at her and she just generally frets.

I do think there is a good film to be made out of the story of someone leaving university for the big wide world and ending back at home again because be honest a lot of us have found ourselves in the same situation. However I don't think many people would sympathise with Aura as she really brings a lot of her problems to herself and I don't blame her ex-boyfriend for breaking up with her. In fact Tiny Furniture is full of odious characters but some namely the mother and sister have redeeming features. I have to say for a cast of mainly unknowns, with the exception of Nurse Jackie's Merritt Weaver, they did a good job with the material which itself did raise a few smiles. The problem I had with Tiny Furniture was that I didn't find it too accessible and I think Dunham's own experiences of life differ from that of the majority of her audience. In one scene a character reads a book of Woody Allen and I think that he is a figure that the film-maker greatly admires however she has to make her material a bit more relatable before she becomes a household name. 


Verdict: A middle-of-the-road indie comedy drama which is too offbeat for its own good gets a 5.5/10