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96 out of 114 people found the following review useful: "The Dead Girl" is full of life, 8 November 2006 Author: autobahnsau from United States
Saw a screening at a film fest in Los Angeles last night and was completely blown away. The quiet intensity of the film draws out the audiences emotions without hitting them over the head with obvious messages. Everything in this film is complex and complicated- even the cooking of a T.V. dinner. The subtle direction and overwhelming combination of acting, cinematography and screenplay lets the film build mystery upon mystery drawing the viewer to its inevitable conclusion. Restating the plot would give too much away, but the lines between life and death and their definitions are definitely called into question in this film. The acting in this film is of the "Oscars all-around" caliber and not one performance is wasted or without passion and skill. Brittany Murphy and Kerry Washington are so incredible you wonder why these women aren't getting more attention. Murphy particularly shines here as a teenage girl trying to control the downward spiral of her life. Marcia Gay Harden is brilliant as usual giving us a multi-layered character that could easily have been overplayed. Mary Beth Hurt offers a stunning and revealing portrait of a deeply conflicted character. Giovanni Ribisi and James Franco give surprising support playing against their normal "type". The cinematography is lushly beautiful, yet also edgy and raw- all a perfect complement to the screenplay. The opening scenes featuring the desert are gripping and breathtaking. They mark a fantastic contrast to the rest of the film. Karen Moncrieff's direction deftly weaves the characters together, revealing small pieces of a mystery bit by bit, never stealing time from the actors and allowing this stellar cast to really shine. If you loved "In The Bedroom" this has a similar pace and feel. This film will knock you sideways while watching it and then will linger with you for days to come.
61 out of 70 people found the following review useful: Not a revolutionary experience but great acting and strong script, 6 February 2007 Author: laraemeadows from United States
"The Dead Girl", written and directed by Karen Moncrieff, is a haunting story of how six women are affected by the gruesome, untimely death of one young woman. Each affected woman is suffering in their own emotional prison. Arden, Leah, Beverly, Ruth, Rosetta, and Melora all gain new life and opportunity because of their connection to the dead girl. Arden, played by Toni Collette, lives and cares for her abusive mother. Arden's mother, Piper Laurie's character, has such an emotional hold on Arden that she doesn't even feel that she can go on a date with out being humiliated. Arden finds the dead girl on her family's land, and for some reason it gives her new courage to explore a life outside her mother's grasp. After the girl is removed from Arden's family stead, she is taken to the local Medical Examiners Office. The Examiner's intern, Leah, Rose Byrne's character, examines her and believes that she is her long lost sister, missing for 15 years. Struggling to get past her grief since her sister left, believing she is dead finally allows her to get on with her life stalled for so long. She and her mother, Beverley, played by Mary Steenburgen, and father, Bruce Davidson's character, have different methods for struggling with the past. She goes on a date with Derek, played by James Franko, and begins down the road away from her missing sister and into a life of her own!Mary Beth Hurt plays Ruth, a woman trapped in her marriage to an absent bastard by her strong religious convictions. Even after she threatens her husband, Carl, Nick Searcy's character, for being gone all the time and for sleeping around, she is conflicted about leaving him. Of all the characters, she is the most pitiful and deplorable. Her religion stunts her common sense, her past cuts it down completely. At the end of her story I wanted to punch her in the face. Ruth is my favorite character.After the dead girl is identified, her mother, Melora, comes to collect and identify her body. Melora, played by Marsha Gay Harden, finds about her daughter, who ran away years ago, from her girlfriend and co-worker, Rosetta. Together Rosetta, Kerry Washington's character, and Melora collect the remnants of what's left of her daughter's life. Melora's is obviously pained by her daughter's death but her emotions become unraveled when she learns why her daughter left.Finally we meet Brittany Murphy's character, Krista. Krista is the dead girl. Her sad and tragic life can really only lead to Arden's family farm. Choices she made and choices people made for her are equally gut-punching and in the end, who made which decision doesn't matter anymore. All that matters is she died.The writing in "The Dead Girl" leaves you dumbstruck and in pain. It's as if Karen Moncrieff drew a line for each of the characters starting years before the dead girl and stretching years in the future. The dead girl is the point where each of the lines intersect and change direction. At first it seems the women's lives bear no similarities to each other but their differences are only as deep as a coat of paint. Each of them is shackled to the past, tied away from the potential their future holds. They tug on their restraints, waiting for anything to break them free. Each of the stories is full of unspoken fear and a frightening depth. All of the acting in "The Dead Girl" is astoundingly disquieting. Each of the performances is compelling and all of the actors were completely entrenched in character. Marsha Gay Harden's performance is the shining star of this film. Her character is a well mannered, suburban, house wife who learns in the probably the most gut wrenching way about her misjudgments and bad decisions. In a scene where she learns how her bad decision making has hurt her daughter, the surprise and rush of emotion completely changed my view of the character. Her utter desperation and painful honesty made me wish I were in the room to console her. Each of the character's stories is shot in slightly different ways. The difference is subtle, but if you pay attention, you can see it. There is nothing exceptional about the cinematography, but it isn't a big budget movie either. The Dead Girl won't be a revolutionary experience for anyone but it is one to see if you desire a strong plot and noteworthy acting.
47 out of 53 people found the following review useful: The Search for Ways to Fill Holes in the Soul, 17 May 2007 Author: gradyharp from United States
Karen Moncrief has written and directed this terrifying, searching, agonizing, and exceptionally fine story of the responses of five different people to the discovery of a dead girl. By dividing her story into chapters named after The Stranger, The Daughter, The Mother, The Wife, The Sister, and The Dead Girl she offers us fully realized characters, each of whom is affected by the opening discovery of a mutilated young dead girl's body. The technique of non-linear film is not new, but Moncrief raises it to a new, powerful level, a fact that makes this film one of the more sophisticated and successful of the past few years.Arden (Toni Collette) is a homely frail girl who accidentally discovers the dead girl, taking a necklace from the corpse before reporting the discovery to the police. She is a caretaker for an invalid, foul-mouthed cruel mother (Piper Laurie) who berates Arden for being so ugly and for involving them in a murder case. Arden flees, meets The Stranger Rudy (Giovanni Ribisi), a tattooed, scary appearing guy who is attracted to Arden because she appears so innocent. He courts her with tales of serial killer manners and yet eventually gains Arden's fractured self-perception trust with physical contact. The next chapter introduces Leah (Rose Byrne) who works with Derek (James Franco) in the mortuary where the dead girl's body has been deposited for autopsy. Leah discovers markings on the dead girl that convince her this is the sister who has been missing for 15 years, a fact that her parents (Mary Steenburgen and Bruce Davison) refuse to accept. Leah's tenuous hold on reality is altered by Derek's consolation and physical attention.The Wife episode offers a view of Mary (Mary Beth Hurt) and Carl (Nick Searcy), a married couple with mutual distrust: Mary knows Carl has flings with prostitutes while Carl feels Mary is too controlling. Mary discovers a chest of torn bloody underwear in one of their business Storage Containers, connects the items with Carl in a suspicion that Carl may be related to the death of the dead girl, and burns them. In The Mother we finally meet the true mother Melora (Marcia Gay Harden) of the dead girl Kritsta (Britanny Murphy) as she traces the clues from the body to a seedy motel where she meets Rosetta (Kerry Washington), Krista's roommate and lover, only to discover that the dead Krista ran away from home to become a prostitute and drug addict in response to a childhood abuse problem with her father. Melora is informed that Krista has an illegitimate three-year-old daughter Ashley whom Krista loved and Melora seeks to care for the only remains of the dead girl - her granddaughter and her lover.This film beams with brilliant performances: Collette, Harden, Byrne, Laurie, Hurt, Searcy, Washington, Steenburgen, Franco and Ribisi are poignant in their depiction of damaged people whose lives are altered by the Dead Girl. This is ensemble acting of the finest category. The production values are strong and the director's control of what could have been a meandering saga is firm and keeps the story from becoming sensationalized. This is yet another brilliant little film that deserves a very wide audience. Grady Harp
27 out of 29 people found the following review useful: Grim set of narratives will hit the spot if you are in the mood, 12 May 2007 Author: D A from SoFla, UsA
An atmospheric sextuplet of stories revolving around The Dead Girl makes for an intriguing, if unnecessary diversion from your standard murder mystery. Starting with this basic concept, Karen Moncrieff, the writer and director, will show how those associated with this corpse react around the event. In loosely connected stories, this body becomes either foreground or background material to each scenario's more personal, character-based meditations. What turns out is an interesting and eerie slice of independent ensemble drama, more effective as distinct portions then the muddied whole it will add into.Those going into the movie expecting a hard fought thriller will definitely be disappointed, but people who enjoy more low key fair might have found their sleeper hit of the moment. The Dead Girl reeks of professionally depressive performances. No more ensemble work then a collection of different short films thrown together, casting here nevertheless will make this feature far more attractive then it could have been. Everyone is at their subtly bleak best, and right from the start with Toni Collette's haunted presence one knows the film will be a showcase of silence and darkness from a worthy cast, perhaps at the expense of things like facts and plot.Those who will enjoy The Dead Girl most are those who bask in cinematic gray areas. Nothing will attempt to be solved or moralized by detailing the grim reality of this murder. Instead viewers have six dark little tales which are more character study then interlocking mystery. For sheer foreboding ambiance alone, The Dead Girl is worth a watch; film's creepiest fade out in recent memory should distinctly heighten a lasting aftertaste.
40 out of 56 people found the following review useful: "What was it like, I mean, finding that DEAD GIRL?", 29 December 2006 Author: screenwriter-14 from United States
THE DEAD GIRL has an ensemble cast that makes each story segment fit into the other and Toni Collette, once again, gives a knock out performance, with Giovanni Ribisi, another stand out in this very dark and dramatic story in which Brittany Murphy shines in a character which once again is reminiscent of the tragic SHERRY BABY and gives the dead girl a feeling of life which she never really had.The dark colors in the photography and dialog fit each scene and made all the characters stand out. What was really clever was how the writer tied the different segments into finding and identifying the dead girl and how the characters were each in their own way, rather bleak and very dark "Shakespearean" men and women all thrown into this witch's kettle of death and tragedy.I salute the independent film festival for honoring THE DEAD GIRL in 2007 as this very dark tale might have trouble resonating with a wider audience. But to watch such a talented group of actors in THE DEAD GIRL should be recommended for any future actor.
27 out of 32 people found the following review useful: My Only Sunshine, 4 March 2007 Author: David Ferguson (fergusontx@gmail.com) from Dallas, Texas
Greetings again from the darkness. Who is Karen Moncrief and where did she come from? The writer/director of this very interesting, complex "little" depressing film really took me by surprise with a tremendous script and creatively photographed look at how 5 stories intersect thanks to one dead body found in a field. I know most are already thinking "Crash" or "Babel", but this film is much more intimate and personal than either of those two big budget films.The story begins with emotionally bankrupt Toni Collette finding the body in a field near the home she shares with her physically invalid, emotionally abusing mother, played with brimstone by Piper Laurie (who has quite the history of tough love Mom's!). The depths of Collette's loneliness are played out in one of the most painful first kisses ever filmed on her date with Giovanni Ribisi.On the surface, what appears to be the most "normal" family, we get the lovely Rose Byre preparing the body for burial and believing (or more truthfully hoping) that the body belongs to her long missing sister. The stress and depression in the family is so painful as mother Mary Steenburgen refuses to "give up" hope and dad Bruce Davison is just helpless as the women in his life are all lost to him. While Byrne thinks the body belongs to her sister, she feel re-born and actually leaves her fetal position to date James Franco. However, soon all returns to "normal".Mary Beth Hurt and Nick Searcy run a storage unit business next to their home and they spend their time together arguing and going emotionally numb. Searcy escapes for long drives and comes home with no explanation. A little detective work by Hurt has her proving her love and loyalty to a man who does not deserve it.Marcia Gay Harden is the mother of the found dead girl. She goes searching for answers as to why her daughter ran away from home and how the daughter lived. The answers aren't pretty and most come from a hooker played by Kerry Washington. After much heart-break, the only sunshine in the film is discovered.The films final chapter delivers the last piece of the puzzle as we see Brittany Murphy (the dead girl) and her struggles to make some type of life for herself. Again, painful to watch, but filled with emotional drama.These stories are broken out here for a message. The acting of each of those named above is profound and never once over the top. Each story could be its own film, yet the brief glimpse provided into each life is just about all we can take. Ms. Moncrief has created a gem and a view into life's pain that crosses all genders, races and socio-economic boundaries. OK, I did smile once ... when I heard that Brittany Murphy's character has the last name KUTCHER!!
25 out of 32 people found the following review useful: Dark comment on the hidden strength of women, 27 February 2007 Author: drexelspivey from United States
"The Dead Girl" A film review by Brian Murphy "The Dead Girl," writer/director Karen Moncrieff's (a former television actress and director) penetrating new film, connects five women affected by the death of a young woman (Brittany Murphy). The film, split up into five chapters, reads like a book, with each chapter examining the changes in their lives brought about by the brutal murder of someone most of them have never met."The Stranger," "The Sister," "The Wife," "The Mother" and "The Dead Girl" comprise a fascinating, multiple character study of abused, confused and repressed women. The murdered woman winds up being an altruistic, sacrificial lamb that alters the course of others for better and for worse.Ms. Moncrieff has assembled a stellar cast. Toni Collette ("Little Miss Sunshine") shines as Arden, an emotionally bruised daughter, isolated from society by her abusive, invalid mother. After discovering the corpse of a young woman, her world is turned upside down; the media hounds her, she is romantically pursued by a creepy grocery clerk (the underrated Giovanni Ribisi), and she rebels against her passive nature, lashing out at a mother (Piper Laurie) who, referring to her deceased brother, remarks, "He (God) should have taken you instead!" Rose Byrne is phenomenal as Leah, a young woman desperately searching for a way to put the 15-year disappearance of her sister to rest. While her mother (Mary Steenburgen) still posts age-enhanced pictures of her daughter, desperately hoping for her return, Leah wishes for her family to accept the fact that her sister must be dead, in order for them all to move on. Her occupation as a coroner perfectly corresponds to her character. When she comes across the corpse that Arden discovered, she immediately finds a birthmark similar to that of her sister. Finally feeling the closure she has been seeking, Leah embarks on a life separate from work and her therapist's office. She responds to the advances of slightly creepy coworker Derek (James Franco of "Spiderman"), and has sex in a scene Ms. Moncrieff deftly designed to express release.Mary Beth Hurt (as Ruth,) and Marcia Gay Harden ("Pollock,") present two antithetical characters seeking redemption for, perhaps, their denial. Ruth, a religious, forgotten wife, believes her despondent husband may be a serial killer, while Harden's Melora is the mother of a woman possibly murdered by Ruth's husband. Ultimately, their choices define them. Ruth chooses to remain in denial, while Melora seeks the cause of her daughter's decision to run away. In the end, one is lost and haunted, while the other earns redemption.Not to be forgotten, Brittany Murphy ("8 Mile"), as Krista (a.k.a. "The Dead Girl") gives a spectacular performance that serves as the essential footnote to Moncrieff's film. Murphy delivers as a junkie prostitute who, despite her troubled past, is still a loving mother.Karen Moncrieff's script may have difficulty appealing to a mass male audience. Her script is gender-centric, studying the growth or regression of several female leads. The few male characters involved are either initially or ultimately presented as unsympathetic, withdrawn, or potential sources of violence. This does not exclude children, like the young boy who punches his sister in the arm. Men are not definitively portrayed as evil, but the film does cast a wary glare in their direction.However, Ms. Moncrieff's writing is insightful, and her direction is expressive. She uses a myriad of close-ups to showcase the talents of her fine ensemble cast and also to express a claustrophobic tone-Her women are often emotionally stunted, cornered by men, or voluntarily succumb to their own fears. Their transitions define this empathetic yet brutally honest film.
16 out of 18 people found the following review useful: A Nutshell Review: The Dead Girl, 30 September 2007 Author: DICK STEEL from Singapore
The story brought memories of an old television cult series called Twin Peaks. A dead, blonde girl's body is being discovered in the grasslands of an idyllic village, and this provides the catalyst for the movie as the plot unravels to tell of the stories that centers around that discovery. In summary, it had a total of 5 short stories all inter-weaved through a fragmented timeline, and a host of characters in those stories who have one way or another, played a part in the girl's life, during when she was alive, and after.The Stranger stars Toni Collette as the woman who discovered the body, and how she gets thrust into the media limelight, yet yearning for that freedom to flee from her domineering mother. The Sister tells of a pathologist's inability to fight on and continue her family's believe that her missing sister is still out there somewhere, and not to throw in the towel and give up hope. The Wife will manage to rile you up, with the story of a neglected wife, and her hopes for reconciling with her estranged husband, who prefers gallivanting late at night to spending time with her, and of course, with her decision to protect her husband's secrets to losing him for sure altogether when revealed. And The Mother reminds you that a mother's love knows no bounds. Hurt by her daughter's disappearance, the worse case scenario happens, and Mum has got to heal old wounds. It's a touching short, and I thought one of the most powerful amongst the rest. And rounding it up, like the last pieces of a jigsaw, is The Dead Girl's story, where we see a foul mouthed Brittany Murphy bringing it all on.The movie had excellent performances all round by the ensemble cast, and it doesn't have any big bang moments to shock and awe. It's a dramatic story, rather than a mystery- thriller-whodunnit. I was glad that it didn't go down the torture porn route, although it could have, but didn't need to. Leaving it where it is will already allow your imagination to run wild what the outcome will be. However, this might serve as a let down to some as it might seem that it failed to want to bridge the missing gap in the timeline. Fragmented timeline and multiple, parallel stories do seem to be the rage these days (Babel anyone?), but it all boils down to how much of a story you can make out of a single drop in the pond. That's what The Dead Girl feels like, with the stories the inevitable ripples that fan out.You Are My Sunshine looks like a song very popularly used in end credits, and so far I had thought that it was a simple childhood nursery song. But when used in this context, it had a profound depth telling of longing and missing, that everyone has their own sunshine that they hold very dear to. Recommended movie, especially if you're into the fragmented timeline fad.
16 out of 19 people found the following review useful: Not exactly a horror pic, but a terrifyingly good drama, 3 December 2006 Author: fertilecelluloid from Mountains of Madness
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Not a horror film per se, but a fascinating, sometimes macabre piece of cinema centered around the dead body of a young girl (Brittany Murphy). We meet people who knew her, people whose lives have been shattered by her passing, and we meet the "dead girl" herself during the events that led up to her mortal exit. It's a very interesting structure and Karen Moncrieff, who wrote and directed, manages to make each story interesting and involves us quickly in the plight of each character (which is essential, because the stories are not very long). Although there have been many films focusing on disparate stories that intersect at some point ("Babel", for example, and "Pulp Fiction"), these stories are more self-contained, so what we end up watching are gritty snapshots of the lives of people whose common ground was their relationship with "the dead girl". The make-up effects on Murphy's corpse are chillingly realistic, and the cinematography by Michael Grady is exceptional. Special performance nods must go to Marcia Gay Harden, Josh Brolin, Mary Beth Hurt and Toni Collette, even though all performances in this pic, which I expect will be ignored by most, are totally authentic. One of the most moving and gut-wrenching films I have seen for quite a while. Why? Superb writing. With that and great actors, you can't go wrong.
16 out of 20 people found the following review useful: Insanely overlooked., 9 January 2008 Author: dead47548 from United States
A truly phenomenal work. The film is separated into five different stories, and each one is intricately detailed and each one is led by a poignant female performance. I can't rave about this enough. Every story is so beautiful in their own way. I must say that I greatly preferred the style of showing each story in it's entirety and then moving onto the next one, instead of continuing the tradition of the swarm of these ensemble films with very different characters linked by a small event that we've been seeing this decade. It showed some great originality to cut the stories into five different, linked short films instead of mashing them all together and just showing pits and pieces of each story.The entire concept of the film is remarkable. How one, very unfortunate, death can be the new beginning of seven others. The end of one life leads to the reawakening, or liberation, of seven others. Such a phenomenal concept that was executed flawlessly. That alone makes it something brilliant, in my eyes, but then each story is filled with such strong symbolism and metaphors. One example of symbolism could be the color contrast in Leah's story. At the beginning there is just steely blues and greys to represent her dull, isolated life. But then, once she goes to Derek's party, there is life and vibrant color seen all around (the shining lights in the background and even the lights of the swingset). It's a truly beautiful scene.Every character is so rich and deep and bring out every kind of sympathy I could ever feel. The ending of most stories is formed with a strong scene of liberation and change, that put a big smile to my face. Ruth's story isn't this way though in which we see a stunning scene of her realizing the horrible man that her husband is, but in almost an act of defiance, she shuts her eyes to his evil deeds. And of course Krista's ending has no liberation or freedom. Instead it's one of the most heartbreaking experiences of my life. We see this sweet adorable character light with joy, thinking that she is going to see her daughter on her birthday. But we know her eventual fate, and that she will never meet her daughter. It brought such tears to my eyes.The performances really blew me away. I was expecting them to be good, but not some of the best of the year. Even Marcia Gay Harden, my least favorite actress, turns in a strong, subtle and emotional work compared to her usual whiny-annoying fare. James Franco really needs more chances to shine, because he is one of the most underrated actors around. He completely transforms his strong, hulky build into an adorable geeky character that makes it easy to see why he brings Leah out of her deep depression. I have to highlight the phenomenal work from Giovanni Ribisi and Rose Byrne in two of my absolute favorite performances of last year. Exceptional doesn't even begin to describe the brilliance of their work. They both get resounding nominations from me, and the film is one of the five best of last year.
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