Bella Thorne stars as the titular girl who returns to her shithole hometown, hatchet in hand, on a mission to kill the abusive father she hasn’t seen for several years. (This girl REALLY wants to bury the hatchet if you know what I mean.) Almost immediately, she pops up on the radar of the creepy sheriff (Mickey Rourke) who presides over the town. When she finally confronts her father, it doesn’t go nearly the way she expected, and she soon finds herself at the mercy of the despicable sheriff.
Girl, like the unimaginative title suggests, is a thoroughly ordinary and unmemorable little crime thriller. It was sold as a horror movie, but it’s more of a redneck drama with some occasional bloodletting. It’s fine, I guess. It’s just that director Chad Faust (who also plays Rourke’s psycho brother) never really manages to ratchet up the tension. While it’s a perfectly watchable affair, Faust just can’t seem to squeeze any suspense out of the admittedly thin script (that was surprise, surprise, also written by Faust). Even the big plot twist (which isn’t really all that surprising) falls flat, which is just as much the fault of Faust’s writing as his direction.
If the movie has an ace up its sleeve, it’s Thorne. With her permanent scowl, stringy crimson locks, and facial piercings up and down her profile, she really sells her character’s predicament and makes for a tough, likeable, able-bodied, and resourceful heroine. Too bad the material she’s been given to work with is so weak.
As big of a Mickey Rourke fan as I am, it pains me to say that I was a little disappointed by his portrayal of the sheriff. He really underplayed the character’s menace and didn’t act nearly as weird as I was expecting/hoping. I’m not saying a top-shelf Rourke performance could’ve singlehandedly saved Girl, but it certainly would’ve given you a reason to watch it.
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