The performance from newcomer Onata Aprile is astounding precisely because it's not astounding.

| Original Score: 3.5/4.0 | Sep 27, 2020

The directing duo of Scott McGehee and David Siegel may have finally found their masterpiece in this deft update of Henry James' Victorian-era novel...

| Jun 18, 2020

A tough, rewarding study of emotional neglect that plays the emotions like a grand piano.

| May 12, 2020

Nothing new is brought to the table here other than the mother being as unsuitable a parent as the father, which is not the typical.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | May 3, 2020

The emotional complexity and layering of What Maisie Knew is a gorgeous and powerful construct in character and observational brilliance.

| Nov 27, 2019

The narrative's linchpin is Maisie and much of the film's momentum comes from Aprile's ability to channel her quicksilver state of mind.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 2, 2019

The deeply affecting Maisie is a tyke-oriented tearjerker that works on the soul. What Maisie Knew is what we all should know...the truthfulness of tears and triumph in the eyes of an innocent adolescent looking for a well-deserved childhood comfort zone.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 17, 2018

I don't know where the directors (Scott McGehee and David Siegel) discovered Miss Aprile, or how they elicited her performance but, my God, she knocks it out the court. Over and over.

| Sep 5, 2018

In the first hour of the movie I found myself loving the acting, compelled by the story, and mildly disgusted by the saccharine, twinkly-indie-chick music. I'm sorry to say that by the end the music has taken over.

| Aug 7, 2018

Soft-centred and bland though it is as a version of [Henry] James, the McGehee-Siegel What Maisie Knew is worth seeing for the performances.

| Jul 31, 2018

The acting is marvellous - never teetering into easy caricature - while the drama is sensitive, humorous and tear-jerking.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 5, 2017

Henry James's complicated and courageous novel has been distilled down to a screed about the dangers and consequences of bad parenting.

| Jun 16, 2017

Esta a grande tragdia dos maus pais: o fato de no merecerem o amor incondicional que recebem dos pequenos seres que destroem com tanta facilidade.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 10, 2014

It's often-heartbreaking stuff, but never feels manipulative, mostly because the movie puts itself in Maisie's shoes. Strongly recommended

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 12, 2013

Scott McGehee and David Siegel's adaptation commendably preserves the book's child perspective even if it doesn't quite match the characteristically dark shades of the author's moral fare.

| Nov 4, 2013

A superb, moving film, it's a tribute to author Henry James that his 1897 story could prove so illuminating when adapted for the 21st century. Performances throughout are terrific, seeped as they are in guilt, resentment and confusion.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 29, 2013

The filmmakers, Scott McGehee and David Siegel, seem not at all intimidated by Henry James's formidable prose.

| Original Score: 3 | Sep 16, 2013

Some scenes are tinged with dark comedy; some are heartrending; and some fuse the two, as when Maisie comforts a tearful friend during a sleepover in Susanna's huge Manhattan townhouse, while the delinquent grown-ups indulge themselves downstairs.

| Sep 7, 2013

[Onata Aprile's] tremendously-believable on-screen spirit reminds us how resilient children can be.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 30, 2013

What Maisie Knew runs its titular, newly-orphaned moppet through so many heartbreaking scenarios and encounters, I was stirred to start drawing up the adoption papers myself.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 27, 2013