God Help the Girl

What's not to like about this twee movie? The story is the songs brought to life by the twee singers themselves. I found the film charming and naive.

Eve, James, and Cassie seem to have way too much time on their hands. Eve, (with an eating problem) is in and out of a clinic and finds writing songs helps her emotionally. Eve, James, and Cassie are all musically oriented, so they form a band. Eve, gets a big break and off to London she goes.

This is just simple young people living the dream, and we get to watch their happiness, confusion, pain. They are very much 'in season' for their age and tomorrow it will be different for them. And you get to hear some pretty good songs! Stuart Murdoch kept it a consistent format.

For some reason I expected a little more from Stuart Murdoch who has written some beautiful songs, even though with varying degrees of lollipop. In God Help The Girl he does a few things well. The dance and musical sequences, though possibly jarring to some, are blended into the film reasonably well. But the rest of it is pretty shallow. It's as if he had the idea of jumping into the ocean but got to the edge and just paddled, not really able or wanting to get wet. For example, James is potentially an interesting character but Stuart doesn't develop him beyond the paper thin. At one point in the film, Anton (Pierre Boulanger) describes Eve's music as, and I'm paraphrasing, baby stories for young girls. I think Anton's analysis could equally apply to God Help The Girl.

although I'm sure I could have never been so obnoxious.

three young adults drone on about music and the meaning of life. despite the global recession, glasgow is a pretty peachy place to live; there's a distinct lack of food insecurity, job scarcity, impossible rent and heating bills. that guy who chats you up at the gig isn't a total skeeze. maybe this is is all on purpose; maybe it's supposed to be a fantasy.

I've been following b&s for quite a while, despite the twee label. reading thru old interviews many of the events of the fiim are in fact quite autobiographical; there's a depth to the music which has been earned. I got the distinct impression that ms browning did not have quite that same depth, furthermore she seemed to struggle to relate to her character. this is fine is mr murdoch's intention was to create a light romantic-comedy-musical, but if so, why include the darker elements? it's possible that I'm entirely too close to the subject matter. a painful watch, and, what's worse, poorly acted.

**edit** let's face it; this really wanted to be a film about ME but murdoch was either frightened of being so honest or didn't think it would sell tickets. as someone who had ME, I know what he is trying to say but won't say. it doesn't work! I can totally understand the compartmentalization at stake here: the need to exist in a state of semi-bourgeois lightheartedness; to lie; but the script betrays itself.

maybe some day someone can write a feature film on what it's like to have your life totally stripped away from you before age 20; to exist in a twilight zone of the barely living; to have to pretend that it's not happening to you and you are "only" anorexic and depressed. this wasn't it!

Having read the reviews, I wasn't really sure what to expect when I began seeing GHTG. I should say that I have been a B&S fan since 1997 or 1998 when I discovered "If you're feeling sinister" and I have all their releases up until 1998 as well as the debut album of Gentle Waves. Their music has really influenced me as a person and I really was curious of what a film based on their songs would look like.

I felt happy watching GHTG but it was also really emotional. Being in my mid-30s it reminded me of my dreams as a teenager and I began asking myself if there's still time to accomplish them. I strongly identified with the character of James and his search for the perfect moment, which makes it impossible to enjoy life. I recognized Eve in the many talented, self-destructive, impulsive people I have met in my life and all the opportunities I had to make my life a little more interesting.

GHTG is full of color. The characters dress up in all kinds of costumes, and yes it is unrealistic but I think what many fail to realize is that our fondest memories are usually very different than what we really experienced. Everything is more colorful and stylish in our memories, like a Belle and Sebastian album cover.

I had read that there is no plot to the movie, but I don't agree at all. I think both Eve and James are wonderfully developed characters and Cassie is also an interesting character whose presence makes the story better. And the music is also wonderful. I was very pleased with Emily Browning's singing performance. She not only has a great voice but she also seemed to be really invested in the songs which made her character more believable.

I loved the film's bittersweet ending as well as the many funny and awkward moments (James fighting his drummer, James and Eve showing up at Cassie's house or the drunk Scottish boys whose accent Cassie couldn't understand). This may not be a film for everyone, but I think the world would be a better place if more people listened to Belle & Sebastian and all I can do is thank Stuart Murdoch, the actors and everyone else involved in making this film.

There was a lot to like about God Help the Girl but despite a few good individual scenes, but it didn't flow together as a story that well. Maybe writer/director Stuart Murdoch needed more creative feedback and better editors than he got. Certain scenes and characters just show up out of nowhere with little connection to the rest of the story, like the WTF scene of Eve going on a bender with some girl we never see before or since. The main character of Eve was weakly written. Her past and her motivations were vague. The movie would have been far better with James and Cassie as main characters and Eve as a side character.

You could see God Help The Girl as a culmination of Belle & Sebastian's (a band named after a fictional band that Murdoch's songwriting centered on) characters and themes spanning their nearly 20 years as a band. James, Cassie and Eve seem derived from the archetypal characters from B&S's songs. The movie though develops them in a shallow and haphazard way that doesn't really do justice to the insights and characters brilliantly explored in the individual songs. I think Murdoch could make a good movie, but God Help The Girl was just so-so. The music was excellent at least.