Ever since mid-2006, when I first heard that Toni Collette was going to be starring in a movie called 'The Dead Girl,' I've been very curious about this flick. Naturally as these things go nowadays, the film came and went without even a hint of which two theaters played it during its week-long appearance to the public...and then it was $19.99 as the starting price at Target, and then it sat there in my home for months because nobody wanted to see a movie called 'The Dead Girl' that we knew nothing about. And so I watched it today. And my verdict is: "Well..."
What we have here is half of a good movie. Not to say that the other half was bad...but rather that there WAS no other half. I'm not part of the perverse crowd that wanted to see the actual..."events" leading to the titular girl's death, but rather, I wanted to see what happened with the rest of the characters in the WAKE of her death.
We have Toni Collette's character Arden, now in the hands of the mysterious Ray (played with amazing creepiness by the ever-talented Giovanni Ribisi). It is later mentioned by Ruth (Mary Beth Hurt) that Ray knows the killer, Carl (Ray Searcy), and so Ray may or may not have something to do with "the dead girl" (his sinister behavior and statements aside) - and that's it. What's going to happen to Arden? And DID Ray have anything to do with the murder?
And speaking of Ruth: she's burned all the clothes of her husband's nocturnal activities...right after turning down her chance (that she made for herself) to turn him in. We never get any more of an illustration into her motives for her actions, and although it may fall into the very real cliché of women protecting their abusive husbands, the lack of explanation is somewhat painful.
Finally, we have a whole introduction to the life of Leah (Rose Byrne) and her family and friends, including a dramatic back story of her missing sister, all of which revolve around her examination of the dead girl's body...who turns out to not be her sister after all. I would have liked to have seen more of an outcome for her, rather than a deep introduction to a character who has a minimal connection to the rest of the story.
Closure: that is what was missing from this movie.
However, this is not to say that the movie was BAD. You'll notice that I gave it an 8 out of 10-star rating; I thought the acting was fabulous, the script well-written (as far as character interaction and scene layout were concerned), and the film beautifully shot and directed. It could have been a solid film of a dark but fascinating story about life and death and people, and while it was all of these things, the story was snipped neatly in half. All in all, it was an original, touching, dark, beautiful half of what could have been a masterpiece.
The slogan to the movie is "One life ends. Six others begin." Ultimately it felt that this was one film that ended...and within it, six films that didn't.
What we have here is half of a good movie. Not to say that the other half was bad...but rather that there WAS no other half. I'm not part of the perverse crowd that wanted to see the actual..."events" leading to the titular girl's death, but rather, I wanted to see what happened with the rest of the characters in the WAKE of her death.
We have Toni Collette's character Arden, now in the hands of the mysterious Ray (played with amazing creepiness by the ever-talented Giovanni Ribisi). It is later mentioned by Ruth (Mary Beth Hurt) that Ray knows the killer, Carl (Ray Searcy), and so Ray may or may not have something to do with "the dead girl" (his sinister behavior and statements aside) - and that's it. What's going to happen to Arden? And DID Ray have anything to do with the murder?
And speaking of Ruth: she's burned all the clothes of her husband's nocturnal activities...right after turning down her chance (that she made for herself) to turn him in. We never get any more of an illustration into her motives for her actions, and although it may fall into the very real cliché of women protecting their abusive husbands, the lack of explanation is somewhat painful.
Finally, we have a whole introduction to the life of Leah (Rose Byrne) and her family and friends, including a dramatic back story of her missing sister, all of which revolve around her examination of the dead girl's body...who turns out to not be her sister after all. I would have liked to have seen more of an outcome for her, rather than a deep introduction to a character who has a minimal connection to the rest of the story.
Closure: that is what was missing from this movie.
However, this is not to say that the movie was BAD. You'll notice that I gave it an 8 out of 10-star rating; I thought the acting was fabulous, the script well-written (as far as character interaction and scene layout were concerned), and the film beautifully shot and directed. It could have been a solid film of a dark but fascinating story about life and death and people, and while it was all of these things, the story was snipped neatly in half. All in all, it was an original, touching, dark, beautiful half of what could have been a masterpiece.
The slogan to the movie is "One life ends. Six others begin." Ultimately it felt that this was one film that ended...and within it, six films that didn't.