THE DEAD GIRL Reviewed by Harvey S. Karten
First Look Pictures
Grade: B-
Directed by: Karen Moncrieff
Written By: Karen Moncrieff
Cast: Toni Collette, Rose Byrne, Mary Beth Hurt, Marcia Gay
Harden, Brittany Murphy, Kerry Washington, Piper Laurie,
Giovanni Ribisi, James Franco, Bruce Davison, Mary Steenburgen
Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 12/21/06
Opens: December 29, 2006 Unusual in that its five separate stories hooked only by their connection to a dead girl do not interweave, “The Dead Girl” comes across as vignettes written with a feminine hand about ways that women of various ages, social classes and temperaments react to family crises. Only one is of the conventional, tension-building variety, featuring a woman whose husband is a serial killer. We wonder whether she will be next and wish that she’d turn the guy in to make things easier not only for her but for others whose lives are becoming increasingly messed up–characters who whine, yell, or crawl in and out of their shells throughout the film’s hour and one-half. In the opening tale, “The Stranger,” Arden (Toni Collette), who takes guff daily from her bedridden mother (Piper Laurie) whom she serves without complaint, has her life turned around like the London fashion photographer in Antonioni’s film “Blowup” when she finds the body of a dead woman, covered with ants. Getting her fifteen minutes of fame, crowded by the media, she gains the attention of Rudy (Giovanni Ribisi), a supermarket clerk who asks her out, and gives us in the audience reason to believe he may be the killer. In “The Sister,” Leah (Rose Byrne), doing practical work as a forensic student in a morgue, believes she is working on her sister Jenny, who has been missing for years and whom her mother Beverly (Mary Steenburgen) insists is alive despite Leah’s denials. “The Wife,” featuring a lonely Ruth (Mary Beth Hurt) and her wandering husband Carl (Nick Searcy), finds the wife begging her husband not to go on yet another of his mysterious weekend drives. When she discovers evidence that Carl may be a serial killer responsible for the fate of the titled dead girl among seven others, she is faced with a decision. Marcia Gay Harden takes on the role of an aggrieved woman, Melora, who finds out that the dead girl is her daughter Krista (Brittany Murphy)–who had inexplicably run away. Locating the downscale motel where Krista roomed with a prostitute, Rosetta (Kerry Washington), Melora draws the hooker out and locates her granddaughter in a foster home, where she is faced with her own decision. Finally, in “The Dead Girl,” Brittany Murphy turns up the histrionics as Krista, who will meet her end, but not from the more obvious man in her life, the scuzzy pimp Tarlow (Josh Brolin)–who had promised her a lift to Norwalk, California, where she can give her daughter a birthday present. “The Dead Girl” is a dark film about women on the verge of a nervous breakdown which unfortunately does not gel until the entire series is seen. If the acting is first-rate, the dramatic tension is generally lacking. Mary Beth Hurt stands out in a role that’s neither overly pumped up like Ms. Murphy’s nor too toned down like Ms. Collette’s, all featuring Michael Grady’s crackerjack photography. Rated R. 94 minutes 2007 by Harvey Karten
harveycritic@cs.com Member: NY Film Critics Online | 
