Breaking the Girls

This psychological thriller follows two college girls who makes a pact to kill each others enemies.

The summary of the Breaking The Girl doesn't imply all the twists and turns. It's a sexy, smart and interesting movie that keeps the audience captivated. Alex (Madeline Zima) is a rich collage chick with some, obvious, dubious character flaws. Sara (Agnes Bruckner) is the scholarship student from the other side of the track. There is some steaming hot scenes between the two and some plotting of murder. Does it sound familiar? It's, on paper, a rip-off of the Wild Things movie(s).

Although the similarities between them I must say that I enjoyed Breaking The Girls more. It's not only because I'm a huge fan of Zima or the director Jamie Babbitt. It's because the story is actually rather good. Where Wild Things is full of archetypes Breaking The Girls play around and, eventually, trick the viewer into believing they have the story figured out.

For those who are familiar with the thriller genre in general this movie might be a bit predictable at places. However, it's a nice and captivating film with great acting, directing, soundtrack and vision.

There is nothing more satisfying in a movie where there's an unforeseen twist in the tale. It changes your outlook on what occurred before, and befuddles your brain as you try to make sense of the new state of affairs. It may even make you want to watch the film again, to see if this reinterpretation of the material adds to the viewing experience.

Breaking The Girls, a really REALLY dumb film attempts three such tasks... and fails miserably with each one. Rather than have you gasping with admiration for how the director manages the process, here you'll be shaking your head with disbelief as how desperate he is to put some pseudo intellectualism onto this mess. Sorry, dude. No matter how much whipped cream you add... a turd is still a turd.

This is, after all, a film that believes a girl who's been straight all her life can become a lesbian overnight because of a bad break-up and losing her job. I don't think it quite works like that. As for the whole 'swap murders' plot as first introduced in that Hitchcock classic Strangers On A Train, here you'd THINK it would perform the function of being the main plot... but NOPE.

Instead we are 'treated' to an alphabet soup of boring conversations, scenes that go nowhere and people doing something smart one minute, and incredibly dumb the next. ALL the focus seems to be on these stupid twists... Which don't work, and lead to more questions than answers. And besides, seeing as how we have zero emotional investment in these bland, no-dimensional characters, what difference would they make, anyway? 4/10

Seriously, why do people write reviews just to spoil the whole movie?

I thought the movie was the standard done to death "Strangers On A Train" which I have actually seen and recommend. It is the original after all. This one has women for the central characters and a love triangle of sorts thrown in for good measure. Good eventually triumphs over evil and everyone does get what's coming to them, but who gets what and who gets who, you have watch to see. Unless of course you read all the various spoiler reviews. I thought it was worth watching because it was different and I'm sick to death of predictable movies.

Maybe I'm biased because I'm a lesbian and the girls are really pretty, but!!!... that aside, this film deserves a much higher rating than it has been given. This is one of those movies where at times you think you know exactly where it's going and then all of a sudden everything changes and you have to keep guessing. You don't "love" the characters in this one, it's not the point. Part of the thrill is seeing how unexpectedly messed up people end up being. Sure, there were parts where things didn't quite add up or when it was really unclear what the characters' motives were, but that's the whole mystery (and the point of the movie). Overall, I was quite entertained for the duration of the film. I realize that this one is likely to be a "love it" or "hate it" film, but given my taste, I loved it.

Being gay, I want more films and sadly most are heterosexual based that I just can't fully get into so when something like this comes out I get excited only to be often ket down. Not this time.

While the script isn't anything unique few are anymore and while not the best, the acting was better than many care to admit. It kept me interested and wondering who would end up with who while providing a lesbian setting we need more of.

Also I'm not sure where Brook came from so there are a few holes that I wished was addressed but if you can overlook a fee minor issues I'm sure you'll enjoy the film as I did.