Andrea, inocencia perdida

The setup is all too familiar: we have a girl who wonders about life. She has sex, is disappointed in love (always mildly by our measures) and thus "grows up."

Its a persistent fiction that is glued into filmdom and god knows how many lives it has bent.

But as these go, this one isn't as tendentious as the others. I think that's because of the triple narrative structure.

The main narrative is the girl (here Dominique Swain fresh from "Lolita"), who tells us what is going on in her mind. Thhings like "I wish I could grow up." Sometimes her narration is her thoughts in the story rather than over it, such as when she says something polite but is thinking something rude.

The second narrative is the story we see of course. Naturally, all the sex is akin to dreamy cuddling.

The third narrative is embedded in the story, the narrative of incisive rock songs. Indeed, they are rock songs about the very stuff of the story and inspired by the story itself. The three are woven together, each commenting on the other.

Few young viewers will notice, but this is pretty sophisticated storytelling. Even though every thing in it is empty and borrowed, the whole seems much fresher.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

I read the book after I saw the movie, and the book to me was less real. I thought that Andrea and her overthought, psuedo-angsty voice-overs were what made her real. She was a little rich girl who essentially knew that she wanted for nothing, yet she's searching to fill a hole that she knows isn't really there. Complete with bad poetry-like flowery language and long sighs and large gestures, I thought that Andrea in the movie was real, and Andrea in the book was flat, uninspired. I didn't even hate Todd Sparrow, as has been mentioned by other viewers. I thought that the whole movie was about stupid little people doing stupid little things and learning from them, like how it really happens. I didn't think girl was oscar material, by any means, but I think that there will be a character that everyone will see a bit of themselves in.

I didn't read the book & didn't walk in with preconceived notions. Basically a coming of age film about a girl attracted to a fledgling rock star and she falls into the "groupie" mindset & lifestyle for a bit. Nothing epic but everyone plays their part well & it's an entertaining movie.

While the movie has some gaping holes -- I don't buy the Todd Sparrow character for a minute -- it's actually a decent film that I found myself enjoying more than I thought I would. I rented it mainly for Dominique Swain, who I think is underrated, but found myself engaged in the film. The most surprising thing -- who knew Tara Reid could actually act? And what happened? I'm not saying she's Meryl Streep in this, but really, I'd never have guessed she was capable of playing more than the blonde bimbo she's been doing since American Pie.

This movie is just sad. It's "My So-Called Life" without the depth or interesting characters. It's "Clueless" without the endearing charm, heart, or entertainment. And yet it's somehow undeniably totally derived from both. Swain herself not only actually physically resembles both Alicia Silverstone and Claire Danes (especially with the ruby-dyed hair), but her narration even seems to fall halfway in between "Clueless"' poignant perkiness and "My So Called Life's" dark brooding. The hitch is that both can't possibly be done properly at the same time, and "Girl" is shining proof of that. This movie is so directionless and muddled that I'm kind of upset I bothered to watch it. It attempts to tackle just about every possible teen issue it can, which does not help it either. No scene in the movie is longer than a minute and a half, and not one of the million or so tangent plot lines ever becomes fully developed. And not one of the multitude of characters is ever deveolped even enough for the audience to care about them in the least. And on top of that, the movie is tremendously out of touch. The characters are all one dimensional stereotypical representations that some studio exec thinks are what "real" teens are like. This whole movie feels so condensed and confused that I honestly couldn't possibly summarize the plot. I think it has something to do with this chick having a crush, but the movie goes so far off the path trying to be an extra-glossy after-school special that it completely self-destructs. It's not good in the beginning and it only gets more embarassing as the movie reaches its absurd conclusions (which do not provide any character resolution or moral to any of the stories anyway). Pretty sad crap.