Josephine (2026) – Review and Summary (Sundance)

Josephine is a heavy film in which its child lead actress, Mason Reeves, surprisingly carries the load well.

ByAmari Allah Hours Posted on

Spoiler Alert: This summary and review contains spoilers.

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“Josephine” Film Details

Movie Summary

On February 9th, around 5:45 AM, 8-year-old Josephine witnessed someone being raped. She was with her dad, Damien, that morning, and he chased after the guy, called the cops, but Josephine, filled with questions, often got shot down when she tried to understand what happened and get closure. Fast forward a few days or weeks, and while her mom, Claire, tries to start the conversation, even involving a mental health professional, Josephine’s dad is more focused on Josephine’s physical defense.

But the parents’ worries only get amplified when Josephine is seen as the sole person who can testify to what happened, or else the DA may not prosecute the case. Thus leaving an 8-year-old, with barely any grasp on what happened, how it is affecting her, and what is being asked, to take on whether a woman gets justice and a man his deserved prison time.

Cast and Characters

Josephine (Mason Reeves)

  • Character Summary: Josephine is an 8-year-old girl, in second grade, one of the fastest in her class, partly because she plays soccer and her father trains with her throughout the week. For the most part, she is a normal kid who likes to draw, is getting her first crush, but then she witnesses something life-altering.

Damien (Channing Tatum)

  • Character Summary: While it isn’t clear what Damien does for a living, it is made clear that he is heavily involved in Josephine’s upbringing. Because of this, she is closest to him, and he is the most affected by how she handles what happened in the park.

Claire (Gemma Chan)

  • Character Summary: Claire is a dancer by trade, and presents the idea she came from that familiar Asian background where children were meant to be seen not heard. But, rejecting that, she tries to build a close relationship with Josephine, even though it forces her to push through her own struggles to start, and sometimes continue, the conversation.

Other Noteworthy Information

  • The film gives more than enough to allow you to know Josephine saw a rape.

Question(s) Left Unanswered

  • While it is established that Claire is a dancer for a career, what does Damien do for a living? Is he a stay-at-home dad?

Review and Commentary

Highlight(s)

What Josephine Experiences & How She Processes It [88/100]

Josephine, at times, is a hard watch. Thankfully, despite how the movie starts, it isn’t a point-of-view type movie, where everything is from Josephine’s eyes. However, it does allow you into her mind and just as much understand the silence, as it does the development of her thoughts. The victim of the rape is an Asian woman, like Josephine. Her mother, Claire, is an Asian woman, and it doesn’t seem lost on Josephine that her dad, like the rapist, is a White man.

In conversation, as Damien tries to figure out how to prepare his daughter to be stronger and understand the dark side of life, he notes how he wasn’t as good a person as he is now. That prompts Josephine to wonder if her dad was like the bad man in the park. A large part of the movie explores how difficult it is, especially for children, to understand the world. After all, when they get short, incomplete answers or deal with adults who avoid giving explanations, it makes it harder for them to not rely on extremes since no one offers a middle ground.

Araújo’s writing, directing, and Reeves acting acknowledge and honor Josephine’s complicated feelings. From how Josephine acts out, how she handles her fear with sometimes escalating situations, and even at one point, making peace with the ghost of the rapist, which haunts her. You see how, as the world increasingly feels unfair and unjust, part of her innocence dies, and she tries to learn to live with all the evils of the world.

It is the type of thing that can be heartbreaking and even tear-jerking to watch, especially as you realize part of the loss of innocence isn’t just what the rapist did, but everyone’s reaction to it.

But let me say, as part of this topic, there was something about Josephine, while scared at first, gaining some level of strength by knowing she was helping someone. It is never pushed that she is playing a hero or anything like that, but you can see her being strong for a woman, does spill into her relationship with her dad, which was getting a bit frayed. And as you see her neurologically form exceptions, the idea that parents and adults need protection and help as much as kids do, you see that, while there is trauma, Josephine is on her way to reforming what it means to be okay and helping others be okay.

How The Parents Deal With The Situation [83/100]

Both Claire and Damien are allowed to be flawed and truly not know what to do in this situation. Claire makes it clear that she and her mom didn’t have the kind of relationship where she could come to her, so she doesn’t have a blueprint on how to handle this situation. The same goes for Damien. His father was abusive and didn’t give him a healthy example of how to handle a child who is struggling with what they are feeling and isn’t performing in some ideal way.

From how they interact with Josephine, you see they are trying to not repeat that dynamic. Claire may struggle with words, but she makes an effort. Damien? He may have bits of his father’s parenting style in him, but it is never his first reaction to be that way. He wants to be the safe space, the one Josephine wakes up early on a Sunday and does soccer with. Also, who, even at 8, she wants piggyback rides from.

What Josephine does is remind you that, as much as many want to damn parents for not doing or saying the right thing as their child goes through something the first time, they, too, are experiencing something for the first time as well. Claire appears to have regrets, experiences she has kept to herself, that haunt her. Damien? I would say, like Josephine, it isn’t lost that the woman who was raped could be his daughter someday, and him not being able to stop what happened, do enough to get a man put away, is a blow to the stomach. Never mind, for both parents, placing the weight of justice onto a child.

It creates such empathy for them, since what parenting book or class is geared towards preparing you for this moment? Even with being part of Josephine’s daily routine for 8 years, what as a parent helps you get into the mindset of explaining not only what she saw, but the intricacies of intimacy to the point that, even subtly hearing you and your spouse have sex, doesn’t trigger her?

It’s all a lot, and even with not being a parent at this time, I feel myself getting tense over the idea of the long-term ramifications that Claire and Damien were trying to avoid. All while trying to figure out what is best not only for Josephine and their family, but also for the victim and any woman who could be next due to their silence.

Understanding Why Some Don’t Come Forward Or Even Abandon The Trial [85/100]

One of the things Josephine does a lot is push how bizarre the world is to an 8-year-old. Beyond the rape, there is Claire taking Josephine away from soccer practice to potentially see a psychologist – which can feel like a punishment, breaking routine. There is Josephine defending herself, escalating a situation with a boy who pushed her, and being treated like a bad person for that.

However, the most notable moment, which surely would feel bizarre in the mind of an 8-year-old, who is finding herself pushed to see both men and boys as dangerous, is a woman defending the man who started this thought process. The defendant’s lawyer is a woman, cross-examining an 8-year old, poking holes in her defense, and it’s wild to see.

But, rather than just leave us dumbfounded, you have to appreciate that Araújo gave the audience a cathartic moment. A moment where, whether you’ve been through the process of reporting and attempting to get a conviction or not, Josephine speaks up against that lawyer. Nothing loud or dramatic, but once again questioning why the system, the adults in the room, aren’t united against someone who did something bad? Heck, there might even be a tinge of why this female lawyer is protecting a man who did something bad, which throws the defendant’s lawyer off guard momentarily.

Because if an adult woman would go so hard, to the point of trying to discredit an 8-year-old girl, what chance does anyone have without undeniable evidence that something happened?

Overall

Our Rating (85/100): Positive (Worth Seeing) – Recommended

Josephine feels heavy without being preachy, and with being through a child’s eyes, reminds us that while the world isn’t fair or just, we can’t keep passing the baton to the next generation to fix that.

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Amari is the founder and head writer of Wherever-I-Look.com and has been writing reviews since 2010, with a focus on dramas and comedies.