Francine

Directed by Brian M. Cassidy, Melanie Shatzky. Starring Melissa Leo, Victoria Charkut, Keith Leonard, and Mike Halstead.

A glum but tenderly observed micro-portrait of a woman struggling to re-enter society after being released from prison, "Francine" marks a well-judged fiction debut for writing-helming partners Brian M. Cassidy and Melanie Shatzky. Centered around Melissa Leo's minutely inhabited performance as a shy type who bonds more readily with animals than with humans, this sad, offbeat character study is often willfully ambiguous but gets at something true and stirring, even unsettling, about its protagonist's stunted emotional growth.