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Movies / On DVD / The Dead Girl
The Dead Girl

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The Dead Girl (2006)

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Reviews Counted:77

Fresh:57

Rotten:20

Average Rating:6.7/10

Consensus: This dark thriller boasts a fresh approach, but it can still get bogged down by its heavy subject matter.

Runtime: 1 hr 34 mins

Genre: Dramas

Synopsis: THE DEAD GIRL, the new film from acclaimed writer/director Karen Moncrieff (BLUE CAR), is a quintet of stories about seemingly unrelated people whose lives converge around the murder of a young... THE DEAD GIRL, the new film from acclaimed writer/director Karen Moncrieff (BLUE CAR), is a quintet of stories about seemingly unrelated people whose lives converge around the murder of a young woman. "The Stranger" is about the woman (Toni Collette) who finds the body. The publicity generated by the discovery creates an opening for her to break away from her abusive mother's (Piper Laurie) control and form an unlikely bond with the mysterious Rudy (Giovanni Ribisi). "The Sister," a forensics graduate student (Rose Byrne), is torn between her mother's (Mary Steenburgen) pressure to hold onto hope for her abducted sister's return and her longing to move forward with her own life. When she examines the dead girl, she is convinced that she has found the body of her missing sister, finally releasing her from her burden. "The Wife" (Mary Beth Hurt) is trapped in an intense hate/love relationship with her husband (Nick Searcy). A terrible discovery about his connection to the dead girl's murder forces her to confront what she though she knew about him-and herself. "The Mother" (Marcia Gay Harden) searches for answers about her runaway daughter's life and is confronted with a series of revelations that change the course of her own life. She gets help in her quest from another troubled young woman-the prostitute (Kerry Washington) who lived with her daughter. "The Dead Girl" (Brittany Murphy) is a fireball: hyper, volatile, self-destructive and subject to hair-trigger bursts of uncontrollable rage. She also has an innocent and child-like side. She dreams about improving her life and becoming a good mother to her young daughter. The characters in THE DEAD GIRL are linked not only by their connection to a brutal murder but also by the difficult hand that life has dealt them. The film scrutinizes their inner struggles to overcome or surrender to their misfortunes. As in BLUE CAR, Moncrieff creates multidimensional portraits of women as they seesaw emotionally through a tangle of conflicting desires and fears. Riveting and ultimately heartbreaking, THE DEAD GIRL confirms the promise of BLUE CAR, and heralds the arrival of Karen Moncrieff as a major American independent filmmaker. [More]

Starring: Toni Collette, Brittany Murphy, Marcia Gay Harden, James Franco

Starring: Toni Collette, Brittany Murphy, Marcia Gay Harden, James Franco, Josh Brolin, Rose Byrne, Giovanni Ribisi, Kerry Washington, Mary Steenburgen, Mary Beth Hurt, Piper Laurie, Nick Searcy

Director: Karen Moncrieff

Director: Karen Moncrieff
Screenwriter: Karen Moncrieff
Producer: Tom Rosenberg, Henry Winterstern, Gary Lucchesi, Eric Karten, Richard Wright, Kevin Turen
Composer: Adam Gorgoni
Studio: First Look

[See More Credits]

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1 - 4 of 5

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Reviews for The Dead Girl

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | comment Comment
04/23/09
Tom Meek
Tom Meek
Boston Phoenix

The tone is fittingly dark, the writing impressively poetic, and the performances excellent absolutely across the board.

Full Review Source: ReelzChannel.com | comment Comment
08/26/08
Heather Huntington
Heather Huntington
ReelzChannel.com

The masterful film, which was also released on DVD this week, sends shivers up your spine and devastates you five times over, then has you longing to wipe the sweat off your brow and start watching all over again.

Full Review Source: Arizona Daily Star | comment Comment
12/14/07
Phil Villarreal
Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star

The Dead Girl segues from one turgidly-paced, soul-crushing sequence to another with very little reason to continue watching.

Full Review Source: IGN Movies | comment 1 Comment
06/25/07
Stax
Stax
IGN Movies
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Sydney Morning Herald | comment Comment
06/23/07
Sydney Morning Herald

Intriguing and unpredictable, this multi-layered film delivers a profound ripple effect as it explores the complexities of anger, grief, denial and retribution

Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment Comment
06/15/07
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile

THE DEAD GIRL provides several of terrific actresses with meaty roles and for that reason alone (let alone Moncrieff's fluid direction and solid, if uneven, scripting) it deserves to find an audience.

Full Review Source: Murphy's Movie Reviews | comment Comment
05/07/07
Ted Murphy
Ted Murphy
Murphy's Movie Reviews

click for full review

Full Review Source: Movies for the Masses | comment Comment
05/03/07
Joseph Proimakis
Joseph Proimakis
Movies for the Masses

Unblinking and critical about female-rooted and female-specific concerns.

Full Review Source: Window to the Movies | comment Comment
04/26/07
Jeffrey Chen
Jeffrey Chen
Window to the Movies

s she stands, so perversely resistant and so utterly naked, Ruth embodies the grief and torment of being a live girl.

Full Review Source: PopMatters | comment Comment
04/01/07
Cynthia Fuchs
Cynthia Fuchs
PopMatters

Karen Moncrieff's previous film, the shallow and pretentious Blue Car, in no way prepares you for this superbly acted, emotionally acute picture.

Full Review Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution | comment Comment
03/22/07
Eleanor Ringel Gillespie
Eleanor Ringel Gillespie
Atlanta Journal-Constitution

With The Dead Girl, this technique of breaking the narrative apart and then piecing it back together has led to a sort of narrative vacuum at its center -- an empty hole where a thing called exposition would typically reside.

Full Review Source: Zertinet Movies | comment Comment
03/21/07
Steven Snyder
Steven Snyder
Zertinet Movies

The five-story format is intriguing, the performances first rate, and a couple of the stories, particularly those involving Collette, Harden and Washington, are moving.

Full Review Source: Rochester Democrat and Chronicle | comment Comment
03/16/07
Jack Garner
Jack Garner
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

Those who pass on The Dead Girl are missing something. Moncrieff has assembled a remarkable (and mostly female) cast, and there are moments in this film that are as powerful as anything currently in theaters.

Full Review Source: Seattle Times | comment Comment
03/16/07
Moira MacDonald
Moira MacDonald
Seattle Times

The stories don't exactly add up to anything you can put your finger on, but they're absorbing as they're happening, and director Karen Moncrieff has a smooth, sure visual style.

Full Review Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer | comment Comment
03/15/07
William Arnold
William Arnold
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Growing less lurid and more poignant as it builds its story through a series of linked vignettes, this film by Karen Moncrieff provides a showcase for its predominantly female cast.

Full Review Source: Sacramento Bee | comment Comment
03/09/07
Carla Meyer
Carla Meyer
Sacramento Bee

Some chapters are more useful than others, but I'm not sure you could omit any of them, either, as each stroke provides a color that contributes to the overall picture.

Full Review Source: EricDSnider.com | comment Comment
03/07/07
Eric D. Snider
Eric D. Snider
EricDSnider.com

Five stories compose the heart of "The Dead Girl," Karen Moncreiff's disturbing new drama that's so unsettling, it likely will leave those who see it in an unqualified funk.

Full Review Source: Bangor Daily News (Maine) | comment Comment
03/05/07
Christopher Smith
Christopher Smith
Bangor Daily News (Maine)

Moncrieff never gets melodramatic with subject matter that easily could have been; she won’t make you feel good, but she will make you feel.

Full Review Source: Associated Press | comment Comment
03/02/07
Christy Lemire
Christy Lemire
Associated Press

Moncrieff manages to get beneath the skin of several of these characters, a nifty trick considering what a crowded world she's created. In all, it's a grueling, emotionally taxing, discomfiting film.

Full Review Source: Oregonian | comment Comment
03/02/07
Shawn Levy
Shawn Levy
Oregonian
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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Latest News for The Dead Girl

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