Mason Reeves Delivers a Heartstopping Performance as Josephine

Growing up, sex was discussed in terms of how girls got pregnant and how not to get pregnant by utilizing various of birth control. Non-consensual sex nor rape were never discussed or approached unless it happened to someone you knew or you.  Often times, in many instances the victim knew their attacker. In my 20’s, I found out first hand when someone I knew violated me.  As my attacker drove me home, I managed to escape by jumping out of the car and hiding in snowy bushes for hours in the dead of winter.  So, I can’t even imagine being an 8-year-old child accidentally witnessing such a heinous act.

This is precisely what happened to director/writer/producer Beth De Araújo, when a fun outing with her Dad quickly shifted into interrupting a crime in Golden Gate Park.  A crime that could have defined how she navigating relationships for the rest of her life.  Instead, she bravely shares her trauma through the eyes and ears of Josephine. An 8-year old who begins to act out in search of a way to regain control of her safety, as the adults who are her protectors become helpless in the quest to console her and attempting to bring some sort of normalcy back to all their lives.

Araújo creates a tense, devastating, and transcendently empathetic portrait of a young girl wrestling with a newly discovered fear and anger she can neither escape nor fully comprehend after her encounter with violence. Can you imagine your attacker’s presence invading your subconscious to the point you never safe in your own home? Cinematographer Greta Zozula’s precision escalates the unease, frequently placing us in Josephine’s vulnerable, frustrated perspective, as the film finds a bold and unique visual language to represent how the experience continues to haunt her. Yet, at the same time captures how running with her Dad on the beach represents escaping the fear that has paralyzed her family for months.

This film would not work if it were not for the magnificent performance and specificity of Mason Reeves in the title role.  Reeves delivers a searing, tender performance as Josephine that entices audiences to deliver a virtual hug in solidarity.

As her fiercely protective father and sensitive mom, Channing Tatum and Gemma Chan give keenly felt turns as parents totally devoted to their struggling, beloved child, but find themselves ill-equipped to navigate the upheaval their family faces.  Watching Tatum deflect from the subject as a means to attempt to protect her, yet protect himself from the idea he may not be able to shield his only child should her fate fall to be the same as the victim they stumbled upon is heartbreaking.  As is, watching Chan deflect in the opposite direction, only in the end, to give the best advice possible for a daughter that is emotionally crippled.  Philip Ettinger, as the attacker, never utters a word, making his work unforgettable in a crucial, complex supporting role.

Josephine is a perfection and a bird’s eye look from a child’s’ heart and point of view when trauma infests every fiber of one’s existence and hopefully serves as an example of listening to our children and women the first time they cry for help literally and figuratively.