RARE OBJECTS

Director: Katie Holmes

2023, 123min., R

Screenwriter: Katie Holmes and Phaedon Papadopoulos based on the novel by Kathleen Tessaro

Cast: Julie Mayorga, Katie Holmes, Alan Cumming, Derek Luke, Saundra Santiago

 

In moving the setting of Kathleen Tessaro’s acclaimed novel from Boston during the Great Depression to present day New York City, Rare Objects is a powerful reminder that immigrants have always been seen as the inferior “other.” Director Katie Holmes’ third film stars Julia Mayorga (American Rust) as Benita, the daughter of immigrants who ends up in a psychiatric facility for being “out of control.” She forms a bond with Diana, a wealthy, mysterious patient (Katie Holmes), who encourages Benita to look ahead and build a new life. Making the plunge, Benita takes a job at an antiques store run by an elusive eccentric played by Alan Cumming. It is nothing less than the trauma of her past that she must overcome, with the hope that her new friends are not enemies, but a lifeline to self-acceptance. To quote the irreplaceable Alan Cumming, “Go into the unknown with truth, commitment, and openness and mostly, you will be okay.”