Girl Review

September 26, 2020 at 3:35am
By Jason Stettner

This is a gritty sort of experience that follows a young woman played by Bella Thorne. She’s headed to her small hometown with the goal of killing her apparently abusive father. Along the way she discovers things might not be as they seem and that there are deeper parts of her family legacy that she may not want to witness.

It’s got an interesting premise I suppose, with execution that doesn’t quite deliver. At times it’s rather awkward, in terms of the core performances and in how it’s presented. They could have really went more thriller with this one and instead we have a strangely brute-like lead character that has weird parental complexes.

She feels slightly shallow in terms of character depth. It makes for some awkward delivery at times. I perhaps get what they were going with in regards to how she talks, but it’s still really strange and it just takes you out of things at times. There’s not really much of a story played out here.

You won’t necessarily get surprised, and I wished they would have taken time to flesh out the location a bit more. It’s hard to really describe, there just wasn’t a whole lot of meat on the bone. It goes by, and eventually concludes. It does so in a way that makes logical sense in regards to the events that take place, and it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out.

They definitely have some creepy personalities in this one, and some strange moments throughout. Some of those moments are a bit bordering on cringe, and I felt they could have done more with what was at play here.

You’ve got a twisted duo with the Sheriff (Mickey Rourke) and the Charmer (Chad Faust). They could have played these two up more, as they weren’t necessarily dangerous and only bordering on it. I suppose the former comes across as having a sharper edge, but that takes awhile to fully be realized. I sort of liked Thorne’s character once I somewhat understood what she was going for.

It still felt a bit awkward, especially with the delivery of the names. I think that was a very weird aspect of this, the fact you can’t really connect with folks since they don’t have names. They’re all placeholder individuals stuck in this small town deep in what felt like a forested area. It came across as lower in budget, and certainly carried on with that style.

The Conclusion

Girl has an interesting concept to it, but fails to fully execute on its vision. I liked some moments of it, whereas others felt a bit awkward to sit through. I heard Mama and Daddy way too much. I do think I know what they were going for with Thorne, but I think they could have balanced the style of her attitude a bit better.

I would have liked the scope of the small town to be expanded upon further, most of the characters felt very one note. I did consider the surprising ending points to be interesting, though very predictable. I thought a deeper focus on perhaps survival, or the chase might have been more engaging.

It just didn’t entirely grab my attention while I was viewing it. There just wasn’t enough of a sense of fear for the lead. I’ve seen similar efforts, and those just hit those grim points more and made you feel a real sense of danger. It had some spots that stood out more than others, but I wasn’t too blown away by it.

Girl Review at Home with Streamed Viewing during Calgary Film Festival
Screening Provided by Calgary Film

Rating Overall: 5.0