The Girl in the Park

While Girl in the Park is never great, it manages to be a solid drama about the loss of a young child and its effect on a mother (Sigourney Weaver).

Everything here is well crafted but a little bland and formulaic. We meet tons of characters who have the seeds to provide good drama but many of them (The ex husband, the son, the romantic interest at the office, the daughter in law and her pregnancy) are left with unfinished business by the end of the movie, feeling like little more than plot points. As for Louise, for all the flashiness she offers, she brings very little to the table in the end.

In the end, you will feel you have spent a nice evening. The cast does a nice job. Sigourney Weaver gives some soul to her performance and Kate Bosworth is very well cast and provides some sparks and a nice contrast to Weaver.

It's a good movie, but not a great one. Some more development, some twists and turns in the second half of the movie would have considerably improved the movie. Instead, we're left with a cheap Hollywood ending, the catalyst of which is too dumb to even write down here.

Worth watching as a rental if you like dramas.

Haunted by the disappearance of her 3 year old daughter 15 years ago, Julia Sandburg (Sigourney Weaver) can't find any joy even with his son Chris (Alessandro Nivola) and his fiancé Celeste (Keri Russell) being pregnant. She helps Louise (Kate Bosworth) when she steals a pair of sunglasses and gives her some money later on. Louise awakens something in Julia, but it is obvious that Louise can't be trusted. Julia feels a connection to Louise and it soon becomes a question of whether Julia is actually her child Maggie.

It's a slow moving indie. Sigourney Weaver brings her A game. Her performance keeps the attention in a tense understated manner. Kate Bosworth is well cast in this. She has a blend of innocence and vulnerability as well as something darker underneath. It's not certain what her true motives are most of the time. One can really see the pain on Weaver while not being able to pinpoint Bosworth's character. There is this uneasy tension throughout as Julia adopts the mother role to Louise. There are some missing scenes in this movie. My logic mind kept asking the movie to do a paternity test ala Maury.

This drama features solid acting all around, but Sigourney Weaver carries the emotional load and shines as the central character, Julia.

As the film begins, Julia has a singing career. She and her husband live in New York and have two children, Chris and Maggie. One day while in the park, Julia turns her back for only a moment and her daughter is gone. It's a visceral scene. A parent's nightmare.

The story fast forwards to sixteen years later. One can imagine some of what transpired during those years: the guilt, the disruption, the agony, the grief. Julia is now divorced and living alone. Her previously happy demeanor is replaced with profound sadness. She has recently moved back to the city, which might offer challenges. Though she has an office job, she is socially dysfunctional. Then a young woman comes into her life and shakes it up.

This is a story about hope and the loss of hope. I found it to be very engaging. My only complaint is about an echo in the sound quality that is distracting in many scenes.

It has few basic virtues. who does it special, against the low budget. first - it has a great story. who is more than a good one because each parent from public feels the posible if in its bitter nuances. second - it is a film of doubts. not the last - it has the chance of admirable actors, Sigourney Weaver giving a moving portrait . and not only she. it is a drama and, at first sigh, all could be familiar. but it is one of film proposing all the angles for discover the intensity of story. and that, maybe, does it real special.

I caught this movie on late night TV. It started quite promisingly with the gut-wrenching disappearance of Weaver's little daughter while playing in the park. But -- flash to sixteen years late -- mother is still going around bitter, crabbed and half-mad -- an impossible burden to her family, and everyone else. I am afraid I had no patience with her. Her son and daughter-in-law are supportive. Her ex has tried for years to get her out of her prolonged misery, but clearly she is content to stay engulfed in it. She then, as one of her weird behaviours, befriends a pretty little slut (Bosworth), who cons her out of her money, moves into her flat , and roundly abuses her hospitality mindlessly. It then gets worse, all totally unbelievable. Give it a miss.