REVIEWS The Girl Reviewed by Mark Adams
This elegantly structured immigration drama offers a tasty role for Abbie Cornish, who plays a poor young US woman caught up in a spiralling series of events when she takes an extreme act to raise money so she may regain custody of her son. Beautifully shot and thoughtfully structured, The Girl may be too low-key and lacking in real drama to break out, but it is a great vehicle for Cornish. To a certain extent it is a film with a simple
structure — a young woman learns a life lesson and seeks a certain form of redemption — but the backdrop of the border between Texas and Mexico offers a lot of visual dynamism, while Will Patton is also on hand to deliver yet another striking cameo, playing her truck-driver father. Single mother Ashley (Cornish) has lost custody
of her son, is struggling to keep her job, drinks too much and lives in a ramshackle trailer that is so untidy it may hamper her ability to convince child services she should get her young son back. She is mildly shocked to discover her father, who
lives in Mexico, has been making money smug- gling illegal immigrants in the back of his truck, but on a whim decides to help a group of Mexicans to cross the border by dropping them by the side of the Rio Grande separating the two countries and saying she will pick them up on the other side. But things go badly wrong and only a few make
MARKET
US. 2012. 94mins Director/screenplay David Riker Production companies Journeyman Pictures, Axiom Films, Sin Sentido Films, Bonita Films, Cinereach Films, Lulu Productions, Goldcrest Films International sales Goldcrest Films, www.
goldcrestfilms.com Producer Paul Mezey Executive producers Philipp Engelhorn, Nick Quested Co-producers Douglas Cummins, Christian Valdelievre, Tania Zarak Cinematography Martin Boege Editors Malcolm Jamieson, Stephanie Ahn Production designer Salvador Parra Main cast Abbie Cornish, Will Patton, Maritza Santiago Hernandez, Angeles Cruz
it across the river. One is a young Mexican girl named Rosa (Hernandez), who has lost her mother in the river, and her situation forces Ashley to take stock of what she has done and take responsibility for her actions. Driving Rosa back to Mexico, the pair tries to
find out whether the body of Rosa’s mother has been recovered. Ashley gradually becomes Rosa’s protector, and her conscience prevents her leaving the girl in the care of the Mexican authorities. She takes the girl inland to her grandmother who lives in a small farming community in Oaxaca. Here Ashley finds a certain form of redemption
as she does all she can for the child and finds herself in a family-orientated community so different from the trailer park life she has been living. The film ends with her driving back to the US, presumably on a mission to finally resolve access to her son. Writer/director David Riker shoots impressively,
making the best of the striking border locations, and with Cornish he has an actress whose quiet resolve fits perfectly her character. Solid, proud and gently determined, her anger at everyone around her — as she seeks to blame everyone but herself for her predicament — gradually fades as she finds a certain grace in her mission of motherhood.
EXHIBITION
EXHIBITION 10.24.2012 – 01.27.2013
04.10 – 08.04.2013
COMMUNICATION / SPONSORSHIP :
cinematheque.fr n 34 Screen International at Cannes May 19, 2012
Grands mécènes de La Cinémathèque française
Jean-Christophe Mikhaïloff + 33 (0)6 23 91 46 27 PRESS : Elodie Dufour + 33 (0)6 86 83 65 00
©Ciné-Tamaris / © coll. Cinémathèque française
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