The Dead Girl

The Dead Girl

Directed by: Karen Moncrieff

Starring: Toni Collette

Genre: Drama/Thriller

Run Time: 85 min.

Release Date: December 2006

On The Web: Official Site

Teaser: Movie Trailer

Reviewed by Byron Merritt

Several seemingly unrelated individual vignettes culminate to form THE DEAD GIRL, including a piece on the victim herself.

The first story surrounds the mundane and abusive life of Arden (Toni Collette, LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE). Mrs. Collette gives a stunningly fine dramatic performance, moving fully away from her recent comedic roles. She is the discoverer of the dead girl’s body, but she doesn’t report it right away. Found not far from her shabby home where she lives with her scornful mother, Arden takes a few mementoes away from the dead girl’s final resting place before notifying the police. Her mother is livid about Arden’s find and just wished that she’d left the dead girl alone without telling anyone about her. There is an unseen tie between Arden and her mother (played by Piper Laurie), but the death of an infant (probably Arden’s) is quickly surmised. This “other death” eats at Arden and her mother’s relationship, feeding guilt to one and anger to the other. Arden’s celebrity status (“That’s the one who found the dead girl”) also peaks the love interest of Rudy (Giovanni Ribisi, 10TH AND WOLF), a town local who soon learns how mentally damaged Arden really is.

The effect of the dead girl is then transferred to the medical examiner’s office where we meet Leah (Rose Byrne, 28 WEEKS LATER). Leah (an M.E. herself), along with her mother and father, have yet to come to grips with the disappearance of Leah’s sister some 15 years earlier. Leah believes the dead girl to be her long, lost sibling while her mother and father (especially her mother) refuse to believe it. The family tension is palpable here and much credit must go to director Karen Moncrieff for “keeping it real.”

We then run into Carl (a distant husband played by Nick Searcy) and his wife Ruth (Mary Beth Hurt, LADY IN THE WATER). Ruth is terribly embittered because of Carl’s absences, and she believes her strong religious philosophies are being tested when she finds some disturbing clues as to Carl’s activities while he’s away. It is Carl whom you want to keep a close eye on throughout the film.

The discovery as to the dead girl’s true identity is finally meted out and her mother, Melora (Marcia Gay Harden) comes to I.D. the body and discover why her daughter ran away from home. Guilt, shame, fear, and redemption await those who stick it out and finish watching what happens to Melora as she learns the truth behind her daughter’s roughshod life and what lay beyond her final resting place.

And then we get to meet Krista (Brittany Murphy, HAPPY FEET), The Dead Girl herself. Interlocking all the other storylines with Krista is a pretty phenomenal piece of cinematic work, and it is done effortlessly. The connections are made in whiplash quick fashion so watching the final segment may take a few viewings before all watchers actually “get it.” Krista’s prostitute life is not relegated to “the hooker with a heart of gold” cliche. She is not the best person to hang around with, but she is a “real” human being who makes poor decisions, good ones, and one, final, fatal choice.

The Dead Girl is not a thriller. It doesn’t show the murder nor have men with chainsaws jumping out from behind trees to cut-up our nearly naked victim. It is a slow immersion into the terrible lives of these messed up folks. Don’t get me wrong: this film isn’t without tension. It has plenty. It’s just not the type your sixteen-year-old will be used to and will probably fall asleep watching.

The ensemble cast, I think, speaks to how motivated the actors were to do this project and make it an effective piece of cinema. All of the cast were spot-on in their character portrayals and it is these characters that drive the entire production.