I wasn’t sure what to expect from this movie as I put it
into the DVD player. As the story was told I sort of felt that it was a
combination of art film and mystery. By the time it ended I was sure that it
was a mystery that neglected to do what a good mystery does which is offer up
clues to whodunit while often trying to convince you it was done by someone who
didn’t do it. Instead, this movie felt more like a mystery as written by an
author of teenage angst novels where the biggest concern is the mindset of the
teen as opposed to who might have been murdered and by whom.
In 1988, Kay Connors (Shailene Woodley) is a troubled teen
who hates her parents and talks to herself about how much she dislikes the life
she leads. At the same time a problem arises when her Suzy homemaker mother Eve
(Eva Green) suddenly disappears without a trace. Her father Brock (Christopher
Meloni) is distraught and depressed, unable to discover if his wife simply left
for another man or was abducted. As the film progresses we get to see Kay
during therapy sessions where she talks about her thoughts and feelings on the
situation as well as from her narration throughout the film.
As the story progresses we also learn more about Kay as
well. She has an active sex life with her boyfriend, the young boy next door.
She eventually beds down the main detective assigned to the case (Thomas Jane)
and she talks about what is going on in her life with her two best friends.
With each passing day she wonders what could have happened and eventually
cheers her mother on for leaving what she views as a far too generic life. She
fantasizes about what her mother must have thought, giving up her youth to
become the happy hausfrau she became. At the same time while thinking about
what the past was like she realizes how much her mother manipulated her father,
more often than not slamming him rather than offering praise.
Part way through the story time moves forward and Kay ends
up in college. She still wonders what happened to her mother but with no leads
it would take something huge to find the answer. As she continues trying to
find a solution she discovers no new leads but eventually finds a small enough
thread that she decides to pull.
What works with the movie is the acting ability seen on
screen with the entire cast. While this may be one of the few films that
features Eva Green in a role that doesn’t require her to remove an article of
clothing, Woodley makes up for that with several nude scenes of her own. It
never ceases to amaze me how young actors feel the best way to prove they’ve
become adults is to disrobe in a film. Such is life. Meloni does a great job as
a man who most find to be a nice guy but whose wife puts him down every chance
she gets.
What totally fails in this movie is the lack of clues that
lead to what happened to Eve and who may have been involved in it. Until near
the end you don’t know if she ran off or was killed and no real evidence was
put on display as to which it was. Not only that but the revelation of what was
behind it all comes out of left field, suddenly tossed out there without a
single clue prior to this scene. That felt like a cheap summation after having
invested the time in watching the movie.
If you’re a fan of any of the actors in the film then you’ll
want to catch this one. They all turn in solid performances. If your choice of
films is based on recommendations from the Mr. Skin web site then you’ll want
to see it as well. I can’t recommend this one to most viewers but at the same
time can’t fault it entirely as well.
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