The Dead Girl (2006)

Very disappointing...

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Blistering performances.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

In addition to the excellent acting and haunting stories, this is one of those rare films that doesn't settle for stereotypes in portraying the desperation and hopelessness so often experienced in the lives of real working class and poor Americans. Aided by realistic sets and wardrobes, the characters were so richly defined, developed and portrayed that I felt they could have been my own neighbors, family and friends.Witnessing and empathizing with the pain of so many psychologically damaged characters was more difficult for this viewer than watching repeated scenes of the decaying dead girl's body. Virtually everyone in this film was suffering and inflicting emotional pain on others. It is unlikely that any of these troubled and traumatized characters would ever find inner peace or happiness in the future, because they have limited insight into their own motivations, thoughts and behavior. They often make poor and irrational choices, but they still deserve our compassion. Each characters' suffering has deep roots and their suffering will likely last until they die. Sometimes viewing the film felt like watching a human train wreck with the characters thrashing blindly through life, barely conscious of who they were, why they behaved as they did, or how to get what they truly wanted for themselves.Amazing and very rewarding film! I caution people who are experiencing clinical depression not to watch it until they are feeling better, because this film definitely has multiple triggers to pull someone even deeper into that black hole.

I enjoyed this movie and the fact that it is split into chapters and all the characters tie together. Each chapter you learn a little more about them and it doesn't all make sense until the final and you get one of those "aha" moments and I liked that. I thought the ending was a little weird though, I thought it would have been more exciting, but it was just, OK well that's it then. Other than that I would say good watch. The characters are all interesting and you really get a feel for their lives in the short chapters, especially the wife and the sister, those two were very emotional. I really like the fact that you don't know what is going to happen at the end until it reaches the end, it is impossible to predict, unlike some other movies that are predictable.

The body of a young woman is discovered naked in a field. This film tells four short stories about the people around this person, and a fifth about the girl herself. It is an amazing achievement, like if Alejandro González Iñárritu made a film where the story worked. The first segment deals with the woman who finds the body (Toni Collette), her unbearable mother (Piper Laurie) and the possibly dangerous stranger she meets (Giovanni Ribisi). The second story is about a young woman (Rose Byrne) whose own sister has been missing for the past 15 years. Of course she misses her sister, but her life has been consumed by her mother's desperate belief that her daughter is alive (Mary Steenburgen plays the mother and Bruce Davison her father). When Byrne, working as a mortician, comes upon the young girl's body, she thinks it may be her sister. Or at least she hopes so. James Franco also stars as Byrne's co-worker who wants to be more. The third segment is about the killer himself (Nick Searcy) and his long-suffering wife (Mary Beth Hurt), an extremely religious and oppressive woman who has probably driven Searcy to multiple murders. Hurt discovers her husband's dirty secret. The fourth segment is about the dead girl's real mother (Marcia Gay Harden), who has to come to grips with her own failure as a mother (her daughter ran to L.A. to become an actress and instead ended up a prostitute). The fifth and final stars Brittany Murphy as the girl. It's pretty hard to watch so soon after her death. It's absolutely devastating. Most of the movie is quietly devastating. The second segment, even if it didn't directly connect with Murphy's character, was the most powerful to me. Byrne and Steenburgen are both undervalued actresses, and the climactic argument between them is extraordinarily powerful. My second favorite would be the fourth segment. Marcia Gay Harden is another actress who can almost never do wrong, and she delivers here (in a film of great performances, hers is definitely the best). I liked the other three segments a lot, too. Writer/director Karen Moncrieff falls into melodrama once in a while, especially during the final sequence (though she ends it at a perfect moment, encapsulating the film's major theme, of mother/daughter relationships) - junkie prostitutes are a film subject that is maybe a little too overexplored. But mostly she creates three-dimensional characters and moving situations. Her direction is not unique, but I'd rather have it straight than showy (screw you Iñárritu). Plus, the most overlooked aspect of direction is bringing out the performances, and she does that over and over again here. It's a remarkable film (that certainly did not deserve to be released pretty much straight to DVD, though I definitely see how hard this one would be to sell). I want to see her first feature and I hope to see Moncrieff find a place in actual theaters in the future.

"The Dead Girl" is an exceptional piece of film-making. The star-studded cast and their powerful performances give this mystery/thriller profundity and emotional depth that will leave an impression long after the closing credits. The story is told in 5 different segments, each focusing on a woman and their connection, whether deep or superficial, to the dead girl. Writer/director Karen Moncrieff manages to convey so much about her characters and their depth in each short segment. We feel as if we know this character already, and the film we see is just a peek into their lives.In "The Stranger", Arden (the always wonderful Toni Collette), is a painfully shy young woman caring for her ill, abusive mother (Piper Laurie) and harboring painful memories of a young brother who died. After finding the dead girl in her backyard, a grocery store clerk (Giovanni Ribisi) recognizes her from the news and asks her on a date. This series of events leads her to break free of her mother's grasp and embark on a new, healthier life. In "The Sister", Leah (Rose Byrne, FX's "Damages"), is a young student interning at the Medical Examiner's office who prepares the dead girl for her autopsy. Her family (Mary Steenburgen plays her mother) is grieving over and actively searching for her younger sister Jenny, who disappeared from a state park 15 years ago. Deeply lonely and depressed, Leah's notion that this dead girl could be her long-lost sister seems to give her the closure she needs and to move on with her life, accepting her colleague (James Franco)'s invitation to a party at his home, leading to a romantic relationship. "The Wife" is the weakest segment, featuring the character the audience will have the least sympathy for. Ruth (Mary Beth Hurt) is a depressed woman in her mid-50's in a loveless, empty marriage to Carl (Nick Searcy). Carl leaves for days at a time, and Ruth suspects he is consorting with prostitutes and threatens to leave, but doesn't have the courage to do so. After hearing of a serial killer on the news and finding suspicious items in the garage, Ruth chooses to hide this evidence and continue looking the other way when it comes to her husband's actions, as she has always done."The Mother" features a heartbreakingly real performance by Marcia Gay Harden as the dead girl's mother, Melora. She comes to L.A. to identify the body of her daughter, whom she hasn't seen since she ran away at 16. Peeking at the detective's file, Melora sees her daughter's last-known address, a motel room. She meets her daughter's roommate (a dynamic Kerry Washington) and begins to piece together the heartwrenching details of her life and death, sliding the mystery into place for the final segment, "The Dead Girl". Brittany Murphy is raw, gritty, compelling, and heartbreaking as the dead girl, Krista Kutcher. A drug addicted prostitute desperately trying to put her life back together, the audience watches achingly as the decisions that lead to her demise unfold. Josh Brolin appears briefly as her boyfriend/client. The ending is brilliantly devastating in its subtlety and simplicity. The audience knows what happens. This story is not about showing the gory details. "The Dead Girl" is told masterfully, with each successive segment involving you deeply in each character's life while unfolding pieces of the larger puzzle. Absorbing and realistic; while certainly not a happy or uplifting story, "The Dead Girl" is a beautiful portrayal of women's lives and their struggles.