STEVIE Directed by Robert Enders Screenplay by Hugh Whitemore
Stevie Smith was an English poet who dwelt almost all her 69 spinster years (1902-71) in a grubby suburb of London.
She spoke fondly of death as "a servant" who comes when called, but she flubbed a suicide attempt. Her one beloved companion, an aunt, thought her writings were bosh. In her best-known poem she wrote:
"I was further out than you thought/ And not waving but drowning." A movie about Stevie Smith seems unlikely, but this one is strangely appealing.
Stevie awkwardly mingles cinematic language (flashbacks in sepia) and theatrical style (asides spoken...