American Girl

Knoll should stick to writing books, not screenplays. In the convoluted, incohesive and dragged out 113 minute runtime, the story is all over the place, with poorly placed timeline tidbits, and ridiculous and mostly unnecessary scenes and dialogue.

The entire film felt one hour too long and failed to maintain any fluidity to the sensitive nature of its content. It lacked the consistency, depth and tone to be a suspenseful narrative, and instead, chose pretentious shock value trauma in a misguided self-serving fantasy theme.

And that's too bad, because the casting and performances were spot-on, especially Kunis who shined. Had any seasoned filmmaker made some much needed edits, they would've have gone a long way to make this a great watch, instead of getting impatient, frustrated and uninterested in what was going to happen next in the bender-mixed writing and directing. It's a generous 6/10 mainly for the performances.

I cannot put my finger on what was wrong with this movie. The story was good. I am not sure where it went wrong. It could have been Mila's performance, the perfect rich unicorn boyfriend, the one dimensional characters or the editing. First of all, the movie could have been much shorter. Second of all, it failed to make me care much about Mila's character. I don't know why. She had a good story and I understood what she went through. I think it's how she acted, it was a bit off, one dimensional. Actually all the characters were one dimensional. It was annoying in a sense, same stereotypes and say exactly what you expect them to say. And the boyfriend was just so patient and perfect it makes one nauseous. It felt unrealistic. It's one of those movies, that I am not sure if I am happy I watched or not.

The 1st 30 minutes of this movie is almost unbearable. I'm not a fan of voice overs at the best of times but this was overkill beyond belief. Just when I was thinking I can't stand having every scene described to me in detail like I'm a complete imbecile, the voice over narrative backed off a bit and allowed the story to tell itself. Apparently the Novelist adapted her own book. Big mistake. She's clearly just lifted chunks from her Novel and used as voice over to set the scene rather than use dialogue. As I say, once the story got going and the writer didn't feel so compelled to have a voice over explain everything, the story became quite compelling. It's a pity someone didn't step in and re write at least the 1st half of the film. Could have been so much better. If you can get past the 1st 30 mins, it's worth a watch.

My advice is to go into this movie with no expectation... in other words, stop reading the reviews! Lol! I think the lack of expectations makes this movie the masterpiece that it is. -- Luckiest Girl Alive, what a great movie!!! The third person dialogue really nudges this movie beyond great in my opinion. Couldn't have chosen a better actress for this role. Mila is amazing as always! The mystery of "what happened" is executed so well. Revealing small pieces of the puzzle without revealing the full plot was executed wonderfully. I truly wasn't sure what direction the movie was going to go in. The direction it did end up going was unexpected and dark, and it was done so well. Sadly it's very relatable being a young woman. The trauma she lives with and the person she turns herself into is exactly what survivors go through every day. And the "villain" in this movie, is so typical... I highly recommend this movie, and if you're able to watch it with a boyfriend or a brother, even better!

The book was a million times more (not better; apples and oranges) than the movie. I don't think it's fair to expect 1.5 hours to do it justice. I can't give an unbiased review if the movie after reading the book so the movie was decent but the depth and development in the book deserves a mini series. Without the buildup, background, and character development some of the story seems incomplete and really paints a better picture of surviving/victimhood. I worry that it became more of a message than a quality story. That being said, the casting for Ani and Luke (especially) was great! I think it's a movie worth watching if you haven't read the book.