In writing and directing the coming of age dramedy “Tanner Hall,” Francesca Gregorini and Tatiana von Furstenberg certainly captured the bonds that young women can develop with one another.
However, while said bonds feel not only authentic but also necessary to the characters, the viewer will be glad that those characters are not members of their own real circle of friends. That is to say that the four young women whose bad behavior is put on display in “Tanner Hall” are obnoxious, self-serving wenches. Add those qualities to an unfocused and indistinct story and the movie's other strengths fall by the wayside.
Rooney Mara plays Fernanda, a young woman who, upon entering her senior year at Tanner Hall – a sheltered boarding school in New England – is faced with unexpected changes in her group of friends when a childhood acquaintance, the charismatic yet manipulative trouble-maker Victoria (Georgia King), appears.
Shy and studious, Fernanda is usually the voice of reason among her friends, which include the adventurous and sexy Kate (Brie Larsen) and tomboy Lucasta (Amy Ferguson). However, when she begins a complicated friendship with Gio (Tom Everett Scott), an older family friend, she decides it is finally time to take some risks.
Jealous of Fernanda’s exciting relationship, Victoria begins to sabotage her plans and plots to publicly humiliate her. Meanwhile, Lucasta struggles with her newfound feelings towards another classmate and Kate is too preoccupied with making her teacher (Chris Kattan) nervous to pay much attention to her actual classes. Amy Sedaris also stars.
Part of what makes each of the four girls so unbelievably unlikeable is their tendency to come across as universal stereotypes as opposed to three-dimensional characters. As a result, their detestable actions over the course of “Tanner Hall” are not seen in the way that Gregorini and Furstenberg likely intended – speed bumps along the road toward adulthood – and instead appear as defining qualities.
Of course, if this was “Tanner Hall's” only weakness, it could have been forgiven – especially because the strained atmosphere Gregorini and Furstenberg create is so compelling. However, unfortunately, the girls' stories are all over the place, jumping from existentially vague plot point to the next. In other words, the filmmakers never quite relay their reason for telling these stories.
Granted, usually the whole coming of age thing is enough of a reason, but Gregorini and Furstenberg's characters never reach the end-game, so to speak. For the most part, they remain every bit as immature and driven by their own desires as they were at the onset of “Tanner Hall,” thereby making empathizing with them an incredibly impossible task.
“Tanner Hall” (R – 95 minutes) is now available on Blu-ray and DVD at retail stores and rental outlets throughout the Valley.
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