Sophie Jones
Death can have an impact on the way we live our lives afterwards. For Sophie Jones (played by Jessica Barr), the loss of her mother has led to a cycle of “hooking up” with classmates in an attempt to feel something after the loss. It’s not exactly a self-destructive pattern, though- her interactions begin with hickeys and, often, fall just short of sex. Becoming someone who sleeps around is not what matters to Sophie- just experiencing some intimacy and feeling to fill the void losing her mother is what’s important. No one around her sees it that way, however, and it raises concern for her sister (Charlotte Jackson), especially since she will be at college, leaving Sophie on her own with their father, who is starting to date again.
Co-written and directed by Jessie Barr, “Sophie Jones” is thoughtful in how it approaches Sophie’s journey through this difficult time of her life; of course, seeing as though Barr is making the film inspired by real-life situations, and the lead actress is her cousin, that is to be hoped for, and expected. That the film feels very much in the vein of several other coming-of-age films isn’t terribly surprising, either, and you’ll find some of the same DNA in this film than we got in “Lady Bird” and “Eighth Grade,” for example. I’m not sure that I would put this one on that level, however; as Sophie, Jessica Barr is fairly rough around the edges as an actor, and it’s hard to see the shifts in emotions in Sophie over the course of the film’s 85 minutes. That said, we follow her every step of the way, and even when she seems to misstep, we empathize, because we care about her journey. That’s the most important part of a film like “Sophie Jones”- that we care about what she’s going through. Even if the actress sometimes has a hard time conveying the emotional journey of the character, Jessie Barr as the director succeeds, and that is what matters, in the end.
