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Reviews
The Dead Girl (2006)
Haunting, Unsettling, Amazing, Brilliant
Karen Moncrieff has shown that she may be the best female film director out there with 'The Dead Girl', a harrowing mood piece about the risks that women face in modern times. The film is split into five segments, all revolving around the murder of an ex-prostitute.
Segment one shows the murder from the perspective of Arden (Toni Collette), a lonely and socially awkward woman taking care of her vile and abusive bed-ridden mother (Piper Laurie, doing her best work in ages). Arden is the one who finds the body of Krista, the 'dead girl'. Once this gets out, Arden becomes the subject of suspicion and negative attention by the people in her neighborhood. However, she receives attentions of a different kind by an odd stranger (Giovanni Ribisi, menacing and fantastic), who takes her out one night. It is on this night that the depths of her sadness is revealed. This is the most evocative and atmospheric of the segments, and Toni Collette gives a powerful, heartbreaking performance.
Segment two details the story of Leah (Rose Byrne), the forensic analyst who studies Krista's body and becomes obsessed with the possibility that the girl may in fact be her sister, who disappeared when Leah was young. Mary Steenburgen, James Franco and Bruce Davison co-star in this segment, which is one of the weaker ones. Byrne is nevertheless fantastic, even if her American accent doesn't exactly suit her.
Segment three is one of the better ones, and features a stunning, daring performance by Mary Beth Hurt as Ruth, the pious wife of the man who is revealed to be Krista's killer. Hurt received an Independent Spirit nomination for this role.
Segment four is by turns the weakest and one of the strongest. On one hand, it is one of the more important in terms of exposition, but on the other hand Marcia Gay Harden is miscast as Krista's mother, sounding more like Michael Jackson than anything. However, Kerry Washington is fantastic and eclipses Harden's performance. There are some very emotional moments in this segment.
The final segment involves the 'dead girl' herself. Krista is played to utter perfection by Brittany Murphy, who shows that not only is she the most underrated actress in Hollywood (her ditzy image should have been dispelled by her performances in films such as 'Freeway' and 'Common Ground', but for some reason it wasn't), but that she is also capable of giving a performance right up there with the best female acting jobs of the past thirty years. Her Krista is heartbreaking, switching from repellent to endearing on a phrase and the final moments of her performance almost brought me to tears (which is hard to do, I always want to cry in movies but have only been able to once, at the end of 'Pieces of April'), and if Rinko Kikuchi in 'Babel' hadn't shown in 2006, Murphy should have won the Supporting Actress Oscar. It is still sad that she didn't get nominated. The final segment co-stars Josh Brolin in a fine performance.
Some of the segments are patchy in parts, but the direction is intuitive and completely immersed, the performances are excellent, the script is utterly real and the cinematography is grittily haunting. This is one film that deserved more attention than it got. I felt the power of the film despite the fact that I saw it on a plane, and that is saying something.
Far from Heaven (2002)
Sets out to do something interesting but paints the story too thinly
I saw 'Far from Heaven' with high expectations. After all, Julianne Moore won almost all of the critics' awards for best actress, and her performance landed her on OscarWatch's Top 100 performances of all time. She is decent in the role, but I cannot think of any other Oscar-nominated performance less deserving of that honor.
Todd Haynes shows an impressive visual flair, but his ambition (to contrast the squeaky-clean film-making of the 50's with the real issues faced everyday by 1950's people) is not fulfilled. He tries to show a large number of issues, but he handles them clumsily (especially Dennis Quaid's gay husband subplot) and touches upon them too lightly. However, one scene - where a young black boy runs into a swimming pool and all the whites get out - is quite effective.
The writing seems to take for granted that all 50's film-making was good to some extent. Thus, it ends up as a patchwork of rather corny phrases such as "Jeepers" and "Pop" that fail to make an impression.
Haynes's control over his actors is lamentable. Moore has some good scenes when she drops the stylized speech, but for the most part she wallows in confused and half-baked melodrama that fails to produce a mere hint of subtlety. Quaid is the strongest link in the cast here, but he gets all the worst lines and his plot is unnecessary, tacked-on and weak. Haysbert is completely uninteresting and unrealistic and never once does any hint of emotion cross his face. Viola Davis is very good as Moore and Quaid's maid, but one wishes she had more screen time than the few minutes assigned to her. Clarkson is also good as Moore's good time friend. Celia Weston camps out as the neighborhood bitch.
The film has an interesting, albeit unoriginal, premise, and the visuals are gorgeous, but one wishes that Haynes spent less time fitting out the respective sets with brightly-colored cushions and more time connecting with his actors, story and script.
2 out of 5
Stephanie Daley (2006)
A brilliant, unsettling experience
I have no idea why this film, or many of the other Sundance films for that matter, are rated so low on IMDb. It's a shame, because this is a remarkable film.
Amber Tamblyn gives the best performance of her career and deserves an Oscar for her subtle, eerie picture of teenage confusion, fear and malice. Tilda Swinton is also very good as the detective investigating Daley's case, and both Melissa Leo and Timothy Hutton give solid backup.
See this movie - it is a frightening and eye-opening portrait of real life. ****/*****
Personal Velocity: Three Portraits (2002)
A Beautifully Acted, Melancholy Film Experience
It is so hard to find a film that actually elicits a genuine emotional response from its viewers, but you need look no further than "Personal Velocity". The direction and scriptwriting are both wonderful and the acting is definitely award-worthy. "Personal Velocity" explores a major event in the lives of three different women, Delia (Kyra Sedgwick), Greta (Parker Posey) and Paula (Fairuza Balk). The first segment of the three explores Delia's quest to rebuild her life after escaping from an abusive household. Kyra Sedgwick is completely believable as Delia and delivers one of the best performances of her career. The second segment tells the story of Greta, an unknown businesswoman, suddenly thrust into the limelight and all of the troubles that it brings. Parker Posey, while not quite as good as she usually is in comedic films (see her amazing turn in The House of Yes), still gives an admirable performance. The third and final segment is one of the most emotional, showing a confused young woman, Paula, witnessing a tragic accident and hitting the road in panic, where she picks up a badly injured hitch-hiker. Fairuza Balk captures the character's quirks perfectly, giving you the impression of watching a real-life happening. The script is wonderfully timed and striking, with the exception of some of the narrator's lines, the cinematography perfectly captures the mood, confusion and panic of the storyline, and the three actresses show the potential for brilliance that all three have. All in all, a beautiful, melancholy film experience.