Miller's Girl (2024) Dir: Jade Halley Bartlett
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Two things were true prior to my watching of this Jade Halley Bartlett written and directed romantic thriller; firstly, that I had seen many negative reviews for the film, and secondly, that I had suitably low expectations for it because of that.
The first thing I should say is that there was certainly some themes that were very problematic. Interestingly, the story didn't indulge them as much as I had expected, but there was inevitably still a fair degree of discomfort at times because of the power dynamics involved.
I honestly didn't dislike most of the characters, and the acting wasn't bad, particularly from the film's leading lady, but the writing was pretty poor, which is ironic, considering the premise. The dialogue was very dodgy at points, and there were some scenes that were written like a wattpad story.
It was a very unsatisfying story, in the sense that barely anything gets resolved, and it leaves so many unanswered questions - not in the good way either; in the frustrating way that makes you feel like you watched the first half of a film, rather than the whole film. The film ended when the plot actually got interesting, which was very irritating.
I thought Jenna Ortega acted well, and made the script sound better than it actually was. Her delivery was probably the best part of the film - I think if the film had starred a lesser actress, it would've been unbearable to watch.
Martin Freeman was probably the worst performer in the film, if I'm honest. I did not find him all that convincing, and while he did have some fairly well acted scenes, here and there, I found his performance lacking in conviction.
I also want to give mentions to the likes of Gideon Adlon, Bashir Salahuddin and Dagmara Dominczyk. Adlon and Salahuddin provided much of the light relief in the film, and were quite entertaining. Dominczyk, by contrast, made her character intensely antagonistic - which I enjoyed a lot.
Overall, I think it helped that I kept my expectations so low - in that sense, I'd say the film over-achieved. However, do not take that to mean that I think this is a good film. It's really not. It did, however, have a surprising amount of potential, which it wasted. To that end, the film was both better and worse than I thought it would be.
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