Miller's Girl

It tries to have this sexual tension between the main characters all the time. They had no chemistry, they did supposedly have reasons for pursuing each other but it wasn't depicted in a convincing manner. Sometimes I liked it, sometimes I didn't. It had the potential to be something better. The only scene I enjoyed is when Cairo lit up a cigarette in the dark, that looked like something that could've been in a horror movie. The voice narration seemed over the top and unnatural. Felt like the movie was trying too hard. The narration also reminded me of Delores from Westworld.

Jenna Ortega and Martin Freeman were okay but the movie wasn't the most captivating. It's a story that's been done before so it really needed to offer something different. But in the end feels pretty unremarkable and you'll probably forget about it as you leave the theatre. I didn't really care much about what happens with the characters and some of the conversations made me sigh and roll my eyes. I did think it was interesting where the movie took the story and shift in power dynamic between the two, but it could've been written better. Especially if you go and watch gone girl or thoroughbreds. It could've been a more captivating revenge story.

I had high hopes. From the trailer it looked interesting and aesthetically pleasing but I was very wrong. Unfortunately by the end of the movie I was left feeling frustrated because, the main thing about this movie - the tension, it was non existent.

There was no chemistry between the main protagonists. Zero. And Martin's heavy breathing in Jenna's face was very uncomfortable to watch...

Jenna on the other hand... Oh God, where do I even start?? She was so stiff the whole time it was seriously hard to watch. I don't know when this movie was filmed, but she seems stuck in her "Wednesday" role. Yes, her character is supposed to be strong, opinionated, witty, charming, seductive... But she fails to deliver any of it! She doesn't seem like clever teenage girl suddenly shaken and intrigued by an unexpected new variable in her life, at times she kinda looks bored. Her narrating was good though. But like I mentioned, the main point of the movie, the taboo of the desire and magnetism between main characters, is absolutely lacking. It's almost cringe and uncomfortable watching their scenes of "passion and attraction"...

To sum it up - good idea, poorly executed. Shame.

18 year old Cairo Sweet (Jenna Ortega) lives alone in a mansion while her parents are away somewhere. Her new married creative writing teacher Jonathan Miller (Martin Freeman) takes an interest in her and she returns the interest with obsession. When he rejects her pornographic writing, all hell breaks loose.

This movie oscillates between aggressively written and aggressively overwritten. It is trying so hard to be edgy. Jenna Ortega is oozing her lines out. I almost appreciate how hard it is running with scissors. At the end of the day, I am more annoyed with it than appreciate it. It doesn't help that the movie stops short. There is another fifteen minutes or more to go.

Miller's Girl presents a perspective of a romantic affair between a student (Jenna Ortega as Cairo Sweet) and its teacher (Martin Freeman as Jonathan Miller). It is a very ambitious and intriguing idea to explore, I really liked the plot and how it slowly unfolded, how the characters evolved and how eventually Cairo and Martin turned out to be complex characters that carried a lot of personal and professional baggage yet they connected and felt heard and understood thanks to their mutual interest in literature and writing. Now, obviously there's a lot more that's going on, more nuances, subtlety and delicacy and not to even mention the other "situationship" presented but it makes you wonder on another level... does love have limits? Is there such a thing as a forbidden love? Does even right or wrong exist when love is involved? Or, at the same time... is it really about love or is it something else?

Both Freeman and Ortega deliver good performances and it serve their characters well, but it sometimes felt during the first acts like they lacked that chemistry, that connection that was supposed to urge their attraction, desire, tension; that "I want it so bad that nothing else matters"; their interaction with other characters involved seemed more natural than when they were together.

Jade Halley Bartlett creates this motion picture with a sort of aristocratic dark fantasy visual language and score in mind which plays an important part in the production itself especially in certain scenes implying the ideas of mystery, of desire, even of the forbidden and the unacceptable - yet, it felt a bit all over the place and unnecessary at times because it created a few clichés such as the mysterious girl that comes out of a misty forest thingy and it just pulls you out of the story.

Throughout the film it seems to be an incomplete puzzle yet in such a good way because you get most of the pieces, but you also have to create the missing ones by yourself. The ending is arguably the most impactful and well made on this matter because even though an open ending is not reinventing the wheel, this time the final scene can actually be interpreted in such many ways, all of them viable and credible since, as earlier mentioned, the film was packed with many nuances and tones, hints and implies of what actually might have happened.

The film is pretty good when reflected a bit upon it.

To be honest, it's my first watch and I'm writing this shortly after I left the cinema, so maybe not the most objective opinion, but definitely left with with mixed feelings(mostly bad ones). It couldn't succeed in engaging me enough in the story to develop any sort of feeling towards any of the characters. Despite of the talented cast(saving it in a way from a total crash after the first half) and ambitious, some would even say pretentious, beginnings, for me, it felt short in building a solid foundations, which could have been a mean of explanation for what happens in the end.

But on the bright sight, it has a nice soundtrack(not sure it's always used well enough - which is also not so bright. Excuse me, had a bad day).

Let's not be all critical. It has moments that have the capacity to intrigue you, but in overall I couldn't sense the integrity. Expected more of 80s erotic thrillers' vibe. Definitely not a thriller and on the erotic part, pretty sure I felt more interested in Winnie and Miller's wife than the Jenna Ortega's Cairo(which I guess wasn't the writer/director's initial intension.

Some better examples from last year: 1.of peculiar teacher-student relationships - About Dry Grasses 2.of successful writer wife-unsuccessful writer husband - Anatomy of a Fall

Ps- the smoke doesn't help to build mysteriousness.