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| Sunday, September 2, 2007
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The Dead Girl |
THE DEAD GIRL (TRAILER)
GRADE: B+
The Dead Girl! Where to begin? If one wants to see fine performances all around from an ensemble this is definitely one to see. There isn’t a standout star or performance that surpasses this well developed cast. Some may call this a hit-or-miss film, but I see it as a homerun hit sailing at the wall that has yet to land.
The cast includes a long list from stars such as Toni Collette, James Franco, Marcia Gay Harden, Piper Laurie, Brittany Murphy, Giovanni Ribisi, Mary Steenburgen, Josh Brolin, Bruce Davison, and Mary Beth Hurt. This film was written and directed by a fairly unknown newcomer named Karen Moncrieff. Karen has directed a fine film with great cinematography and camera work for aspiring film-makers to watch for movie making homework. This is her second film and yet she’s already gotten some acclaim with the Independent Spirit awards in a couple categories. For the general audience this film is sadly likely to be missed, but for movie lovers that love fine acting should definitely take notice of this one.
The Dead Girl was made in 2006 and was produced by First Look Pictures, Lakeshore Entertainment, and in association with Pitbull Pictures. The MPAA once again dishes out the “R” rating with ease on this one saying it had broken the language barrier and had some grisly images with a few nude scenes to seal the “R” deal. It is edited together from several stories that are all connected based on the death of THE DEAD GIRL. The story starts with Arden (Toni Collete from The Sixth Sense), whose life is turned upside down when she finds the body of a murdered girl. This may give closure to a forensics graduate student whose sister has gone missing for several years. A housewife finds strange connections between her husband and the body of the dead girl, which forces her to take actions into her own hands. A mother is intently searching for answers about her runaway daughter only to pry answers from her daughter’s troubled friend. A young woman looks for a way to deliver a birthday present to her little girl. With all these women’s lives linked by an act of violence they all share a great desire to make a change, which leads to a shocking conclusion.
This film has impact with such little running time. For roughly six different storylines, that are all connected, each one runs roughly 15 minutes long. So, with very little time they are forced to throw us the main meaty part of the story. I truly believe if they had less storylines they could’ve built a stronger piece of work, but Karen Moncrieff is a fine writer and has a very good eye for directing. The film has little flaws that can be picked on but is still nonetheless a fine piece of work. Toni Collete, who plays a lady named Arden, begins the film as a caretaker caring for her mother. Her performance truly builds to a character that we learn has had a rough life and we begin to care for her well-being. Giovanni Ribisi (from The Gift and Boiler Room) is such a method actor. This is a guy, like many other fine actors, who truly becomes his characters. With this character, who has tattoos including a large one on the side of his neck, comes off right away as a sick creepy fellow who catches eyes with (Toni Collete’s) Arden. Even though we’re not given much background we begin to wonder why Giovanni’s character (Rudy) is such a creepy guy. Rudy has a line in particular that is very sick yet in the back of our minds some may find it interesting. In a calm tone he utters about being able to peel a piece off a corpses’ eyeball and develop it like film so you can get the last thing they saw before they died. Very sick and twisted but who can help but actually think about that from a detective’s perspective.
How can I begin to tell you all about the great performances all around by this great ensemble cast? Mary Steenburgen (in films such as Parenthood and Back To The Future 3) has a surprising performance as a mother staying positive about finding her missing daughter after several years has passed. Her performance is strong-willed as a positive mother. James Franco (as seen in the Spiderman films playing the son of Willem Dafoe) plays a small role yet gives it his all incredibly. He plays a very common, basic role with ease, yet it still comes off as a good pleasant performance. I’d say it’s a step up from his character in the Spiderman films. Marcia Gay Harden (seen in the Oscar nominated film Mystic River) gives a flawless performance as expected, playing the mother of The Dead Girl. She plays the character in a very strong-hearted way without breaking into a meltdown of tears. Then there’s Brittany Murphy (from Clueless and Uptown Girl) who plays Krista, the title role of the dead girl. Some may view her performance as typical, common, and expected, but I saw it as above what most would expect from her. Lastly, with a very small, almost cameo appearance, is Josh Brolin, from Grindhouse, plays the boyfriend of Brittany Murphy’s (Krista). Also with tattoos on his body, we are pleasantly surprised to see Josh play a mean character since we haven’t been given the opportunity to see him in this kind of role.
There is much to like about this film, even with its few unexpected gratuitous situations. When we are shown the body of the murdered girl, writer/director Karen Moncrieff doesn’t hold anything back in showing a corpse to its full extent with insects circulating and swarming the body. With gratuitous content comes more gratuitous content with nudity that is not needed. With many storylines, all connected, there are great stories to enjoy, but the story of “The Wife,” played by Mary Beth Hurt (from Affliction), is likely to be the one that audiences will view as the dragging one. “The Wife,” story is thrown at us kind of in the middle, and we, as the audience, have to get into a storyline that we have no idea how it began. The story of “The Sister” comes off slow but builds to a better story when given the time and energy to get into it. Overall, this is a film with great direction, great cinematography, and a well thought out story with impeccable dialogue. People, more than likely, haven’t heard of this film, but I highly recommend it.
--------- Written by Noel Petok |
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posted by Noel's Movie Reviews 7:13 PM
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