The Dead Girl With Toni Collette
Independent Film Maker Karen Moncrieff works with Mary Beth Hurt
Aug 19, 2008
This highly emotive film comprises five short stories, around seemingly unrelated people, whose lives are touched by the murder of a young woman.
The Characters:
The film's first story is called The Stranger and is about a woman (Toni Collette) who lives with her abusive invalid mother (Piper Laurie). The deeply troubled stranger seems emotionally more dead than alive until her reclusive routine is disrupted forever when she unwittingly stumbles across the body of the dead girl.
The story called The Sister is about a forensics student (Rose Byrne) who is on anti depressants and wonders what her life will look like when her parents finally accepted the fact her missing sister is dead. The body of the dead girl turns up in her lab and her hopes are raised that this is the body of her sister who went missing 15 years ago. Although her hopes are short lived the arrival of the dead girl enables the grieving sister to reach out for the help she needs.
The Wife raises the issue of the women who love and protect serial killers. Seething with resentment, and trapped in a love/hate relationship with her husband, the wife (Mary Beth Hurt) unexpectedly uncovers evidence of her husband’s regular murderous escapades and is torn between protecting him and telling the police.
The Mother searches for answers about her runaway daughter and visits the last place she lived before she was murdered. She learns why her daughter was so troubled and that she has a grandchild called Ashley. In this redemptive story, the mother (Marcia Gay Harden) provides Ashley with a better life and is given a second chance to do what is right.
The final chapter entitled The Dead Girl covers the last 24hrs of the victims life. Here we are introduced to a volatile, self destructive yet at times sweet and childlike character whose fierce love for her daughter Ashley fuels her dreams of cleaning up her act and starting a better life. Although we already know what her ultimate fate will be, the film closes on a poignant scene where she happily looks forward to the future.
In Summation:
At its core, The Dead Girl is a tribute to living life to the fullest. Interestingly, it was Moncrieff’s own experience as a juror in a murder trial that provided the catalyst for her to both write and direct The Dead Girl. Ultimately, the exploration of the grief and loss people feel as they struggle to move on with their lives in the aftermath of a homicide, is never going to be anything but painful subject matter. Difficult to watch, but profoundly touching, this is a bleak yet beautiful film.
