Girls Attitude: Modes d'emploi

Ansiedad (Cierra Ramirez) is tired of her irresponsible mother Grace (Eva Mendes) especially her affair with the married Dr. Harford (Matthew Modine). Her only friend at school is Tavita (Raini Rodriguez). After a lesson from English teacher Ms. Armstrong (Patricia Arquette), she decides to perform her version of rites of passage. She befriends bad girl Valerie (Brenna O'Brien) and dumps Tavita. Her ultimate goal is to lose her virginity to bad boy Trevor (Landon Liboiron) and run away to NYC. Grace's boss Emile (Russell Peters) is looking to cook at the Crab Fest competition but he's reluctant to leave her in charge of his restaurant.

The concept is interesting. It kind of reminds of 'The To Do List' except Ramirez is a real teen. I expected this to be a comedy but then it takes jarring turns into dark drama. The production by Mexican director Patricia Riggen is TV level with some good actors. Patricia Arquette showing up surprised me a little. I like the characters in this movie but I couldn't get a handle on its tone. It seems to be a light kid's movie at first but then it throws some very adult situations.

Girl in Progress revolves around Ansiedad (Cierra Ramirez), a young adolescent with a mother too busy juggling two jobs and dozens of relationships to give her attention. One day at school, young Ansiedad - who goes by Ann, most of the time - learns about "coming of age" stories from her teacher. She becomes instantly inspired, researching anything and everything about them, and finally memorizes the formula well enough to make an attempt to have her life follow the basic route of one of those stories. She posts all the clichés like "excel at something geeky," "become the bad girl," and "dump best friend," who in this case happens to be the overweight Tavita (Raini Rodriguez).

Ann's mother is Eva Mendez's Grace, a very conceded, uninvolved woman of many low qualities. She got pregnant at seventeen, was kicked out of the house by her strict mother, never got married, and spends time dating numerous men. She is mostly absent while Ann embarks on this conquest, only turning up to vaguely question her daughter's recent behavior, before going back to doing what she was originally doing. But hey, this is a coming of age story, so I guess it's just following the rules. Right? Grace is also dating a married gynecologist (Matthew Modine), spending more time with him than her daughter, so I guess maybe it's best that Ann seek out other people to influence her besides her mother.

We've all seen this idea before. The only difference is we've seen it with more heart, energy, and self-awareness than this film has to offer. There are films like Easy A and Juno, that inject themselves with witticisms and insight into the teenage life, never mocking it or festering in clichés, but satirizing the clichés commonly utilized in modern-day coming of age stories. Then, there are those rare and unpleasant experiences like Girl in Progress that simplify the core story here; the complex relationship between the mother and the daughter. We see the daughter spend the entire movie going through this tireless phase of rebellion and we see her desperately try to win back her mother's attention away from her countless number of boyfriends.

The picture's main flaw is it lacks a single compelling character that we feel for and want to watch for more than just a few minutes. Ann is a spoiled brat who often goes undisciplined (and I simply can not forgive her for being an adolescent and being hormonal - maybe if she packed more of an urgency than just, "I want my mom to notice me" perhaps I could've), Grace is the kind of mother I'm blessed to not have, and her boyfriend is faceless and unimportant in every way.

This is what you call "a big screen sitcom." Instead of making a film centered truly depicting the lives of teenagers with interesting, redeemable qualities, the filmmakers of Girl in Progress seem to believe it would be more fun to make a film centered around depressingly bland teenage conventions set not for the big screen but more for a Television movie network. The first act is instantaneously stale, the second doesn't fair much better, and the third act concludes with a mechanical exit that feels over-plotted and under-executed. Perhaps if we had a character that was at least in some aspects likable, this wouldn't have happened.

NOTE: Girl in Progress was released on Mother's Day weekend and was marketed as a film for mothers and their daughters to see. I can only imagine the awkward, unprecedented bleakness such a well-meaning move probably played out. There are better films that tackle the same struggle of adolescent confusion. I'd start with Catherine Hardwicke's Thirteen and go from there.

Starring: Eva Mendes, Cierra Ramirez, Matthew Modine, Patricia Arquette, Eugenio Derbez, and Rani Rodriguez. Directed by: Patricia Riggen.

This comedy-drama about the Mexican family living in America talks about a girl who wants to be an adult in a short period of time. With the usual teen comedy, the story goes all around showcasing a girlie side of mischievous behavior. This was not a great teen movie, but acceptable. It's just letting us know what happen when teens are not supervised carefully by their parents. Clearly to say, it briefs the differences between maturity and the word opposite to that.

A struggling poor family of mother-daughter's life is not getting better, instead becomes worse everyday. Grace (Eva Mendis) has been busy all day between her two jobs and a relationship with a married which put her daughter, Annsiedad in a negligence state. Since Annsiedad's mother is not giving any attention towards her, she grows a rebellious character within. One day she decides to become an adult by discarding all the childish character in her once she had experienced them all. So she makes a list to encounter 'coming-of-age' and leave behind her childhood. The plan won't end, according to she arranged. Takes a diverted path and the conclusion of the story is what delivers a message for parents who is so careless of their children.

''So now I'm free to fly. And I hop on a bus to adult-ville. My coming of age story is complete. Roll end credits. Bring up the house light. I am not a kid anymore.''

The whole first half was like a silly teen movie with usual narration and there is nothing special about it to highlight. The humors that is not really funny kind of stuffs. Maybe we get used to it for seeing in every teen movie. The last quarter is what makes the sense, a lesson is to learn from it, for that you have to watch the whole movie. Teens want everything to be done so quickly, slow and steady is not meant for them. In such a concept this movie happens which reminds a proverb 'Rome was not built in a day'. The casting was good, both, the mother character played by Eva Mendis and her daughter's was shelved very well. After seeing a fair end scene I thought the script should have had a little stronger in the initial portions to balance its overall strength. Anyway, an average movie, but can be enjoyed if you are not too serious about what you want to watch.

I watched this movie last night and thought it was a great movie.

The movie starts off slow and a bit quirky. At times it even feels like it is trying to hard to be something its not. Then somewhere in the middle, it drops the quirky and the story develops. I became invested and began to care for the characters.

The acting was good. Both main actresses do a great job in their roles as mother and daughter. As an educator myself, I see these types of mothers and daughters almost every school year. It was nice seeing their story be told and also one from Latin roots.

I would recommend this movie because at the end of it all, you leave the movie with some thoughts and emotions tied to the characters.

Good film.

I feel this is a knock-off from Spanglish. Which, that was a far better movie.

However, this was a good movie as well, with its own struggles and such.

I don't know why reviews has to be so dang long.

Girl in Progress, is a good movie. So go ahead and watch it. What more can I say?

I suppose returns and extra spaces don't Makena difference in any if this??

No, it doesn't. So I will keep rambling.

I'm fortunate to know my mother never consumed her time in different men. Where I got that habit from is beyond me. Maybe because all I wanted in life was to be loved, needed and feel wanted.

Characters met, have a nice night.