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The Dead Girl
- In theaters January 19th, 2007
- Rated R for language, grisly images and
sexuality/nudity
- Run Time : 85 Min
- Offici
al
Website
- 3.25 out of 5
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pick
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Review by Jennifer Pflughaupt
Looking at life through death is the profound and
introspective theme of the new film “The Dead Girl”
written and directed by Karen Moncrieff. Death is a
grueling yet intriguing subject that seems to be
either hit or miss when being portrayed in film;
however, “The Dead Girl” left me somewhere in
between the hit or miss marks and I walked out of
the theater wanting more.
The film opens with the bleak existence of Arden
(Toni Collette), also known as the stranger. She
stumbles across a dead girl (Brittany Murphy) in the
field behind her house while taking a walk, escaping
her beastly and abusive mother played by Piper
Laurie. Arden’s life is forever changed in that
moment and then that plot is over. This is what
bothered me about this film. It is a great concept to
splice a movie into different character storylines, but
for “The Dead Girl” it just didn’t seem to work. The
stranger’s plot is over, and then the sister’s begins.
Then that one ends. And another character’s story
begins and ends all before the next character is
introduced. Although the audience is learning bit by
bit about the dead girl found in the beginning of the
movie, they never get to see the characters really
interact with one another.
On the flip side of this though, maybe that’s how
death affects everyone. Each person is isolated in
their own experience with one death and not
everyone will have the same story with perfect
closure. Death doesn’t always have the luxury of
ending neatly with a wake, funeral and casserole
dish. As I watched the film, I kept waiting for
something to happen that would just reel me in and
get me hooked, but that moment never came. By
the end, I was sorely disappointed in the way this
wonderful story was told, but I was thoroughly
impressed with the actual story, all star cast and
acting depicted in “The Dead Girl”. I give it 3.25
out of 5 stars.
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Jennifer is a freelance film critic with an overloaded
life. She has a rock star husband, a 2 year old
daughter, a military career in the U.S. Air Force
Reserves, and she is also a full time student at UNT
working towards getting her degree in kicking butt
and
taking names. Some of her favorite films are “Heart
of the Game”, “The Lords of Dogtown”, “American
History X”, “The Boondock Saints”, “Miss
Congeniality”, “The United States of Leland” , “Return
to Me” and “Thank You for Smoking”. You can check
out her personal information, plus read her writings
and
reviews on Myspace .
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