Just as it was a pleasure watching Kiernan Shipka grow up before our eyes on “Mad Men,” portraying a seven to 15-year-old Sally Draper, it’s an equal pleasure to see her in a starring role of a charming but distinct coming-of-age film.
“Wildflower” (available on various streaming sites) tells the birth-to-present day story of a young woman originally named Bambi (who insists on being called only the second half of that name, Bea), who finds that her jolly, easygoing parents are actually on the neurodivergent scale — one due to a teen head injury, the other from birth. So much so that even sterilization between them had been brought up.
A large extended family is rooting for Bea, who in many ways has had to raise her own parents as well as navigate adolescence over the years after she begins the film in a sudden mysterious coma. It’s assumed something must have happened to her while she was out running, since track is a passion.
The coma allows Bea to narrate her own story, back to when her parents met one day, against the wishes of their own parents.
Dash Mihok and Samantha Brooke Hyde put in nice nuanced performances as the big-hearted, yet mentally challenged parents whose well-meaning enthusiasm means an unusual upbringing for Bea. That Hyde is of that community herself brings some degree of authenticity — and quite a bit of joy — to the performances. Still, life can be tough.