The Girl

Ashley (Abbie Cornish) is a poor Texan mother who loses custody of her son after a drunk driving incident. She desperately wants her son back from foster care. Her father Tommy (Will Patton) lives on the Mexican side of Loredo. She discovers that he traffics illegals over the border. While over in Mexico, she tries to organize a crossing for $500 per person. However the group gets swept away. She's left with a little girl whose mother drowned. Her father's advise is to simply walk away.

Director/writer David Riker's story is a simplified idea culminating in what exactly Ashley will do with the girl. The movie depends mostly on Abbie Cornish's performance. She's very stone-faced in most of this movie. I see the frustrated 'stressed' woman that she's portraying. It's a very subtle performance although a few additional animated scenes would be great. The combative little girl is done well.

The positive reviews here are fake, as are the upvotes on "found this helpful". This is a painfully awful watch, and I truly feel sorry for those likewise seeing it. This was described to me as mystery/thriller.... It is propaganda and activism. it has some good actors in it, I'll give it that, although Abby is not one of them and she is laughably bad. The whole writer&director thing is a hard thing to pull off, and David Riker fails here as many have. Then of course there is the whole bit about this morality tale being at all realistic - hint: it is not. If you must see this movie, watch the trailer before hand so at least you will know how much to self medicate.

Horridly misleading synopsis. More to the point: A poor Texas woman, about to lose her son to social services, tries to smuggle Mexicans across the border for $4000 and becomes morally responsible for the small girl left behind.

A poignant story of mixed emotions, futility and hope, from both sides of the event. I agree with Box Office Magazine when they say "Abbie Cornish gives the most impressive performance of her career."

Every site on which I post reviews has consistently found the above an example of "helpful" (acceptable) information and opinion. I cannot see where ten lines of babbling fluff are required over five lines of succinct information. If IMDb finds me too offensive to print, then I have no problem with not printing for them.

This movie is all about Abbie Cornish performance ! She delivered Oscar like performance in the movie. She portrays several expressions - Guilt for being bad mother to her son, Stress due to the poverty, circumstances. He has brilliantly expressed the pain and suppressed anger she is going through in her life. Finally comes a situation where she becomes indirectly responsible for a young Mexican child girl to loose her mother. The movie reminds us how we all belong to same humanity and how circumstances changes us. Abbbi redeems herself by showing compassion to the young girl!

I loved this little film. The acting was good and the sentiment was sweet and tender without pushing an agenda. Ms. Cornish is an excellent actor and the little girl, "Rosa" was superb.