Girl in the Park (2007)

Girl in the Park (2007)

Perhaps a bit long and not very credible, even though Sigourney Weaver is always perfect. A rather dark film with a good plot but a disappointing ending.

Let me elaborate a little:

A perfectly acted drama carried by the excellent Sigourney. The story revolves around the disappearance of a child. When a child dies, we can mourn them, but when they disappear, it’s as if they’ve left us for dead. Despite this, and although it is the theme of the film, it is presented in a different way. We find ourselves about 16 years later, in the life of a grieving mother who, one evening, meets a young woman who is a little lost. Until the final minutes of the film, we wonder if this young woman might be her missing daughter, just like Julia Sandburg (Sigourney Weaver).

I’m not (yet) a huge fan of the other actresses in the film, but I find them quite convincing here. Whether it’s Kate Bosworth (The Immaculate Room, Straw Dogs, And While We Were Here, Superman Returns), Keri Russell (August Rush, Mission: Impossible 3, Cocaine Bear, Star Wars: Episode IX), or Patricia Kalember (Sisters, Jacob’s Ladder, Signs, Fatal Lessons: The Good Teacher), they all do a good job and I really enjoyed them here. Especially Kate! However, I read: ‘Perhaps Bosworth wasn’t the right actress to play this troubled young woman!’ It’s crazy how opinions can vary.

As for the men, I was most familiar with Elias Koteas (Apt Pupil, The Killer Inside Me, Turtles – The Movie), who rarely has very big roles, but it’s always nice to see him. I didn’t know Alessandro Nivola (The Brutalist, Downton Abbey 3) at all, but he has a good role here. He plays the son who has to watch over his mother so that she doesn’t completely lose herself.

These actors give authentic performances. The film doesn’t descend into tearful melodrama. It’s a strange story about a mother who thinks she recognises her daughter, who disappeared more than fifteen years ago, in the features of a stranger! The beginning is promising: with the disappearance of a little girl playing in a park, we are confronted with the distress of her mother who can do nothing! The rest of ‘The Girl in the Park’ is a slightly more conventional story of a mother wandering the streets of New York in despair. It is therefore an impersonal drama, but not at all unpleasant, with a deliberately mysterious open ending that leaves many questions unanswered…

I was rather sceptical at the beginning of the film… and the ending can be disturbing… but it is certainly a fairly good film. As the story unfolds, we quickly learn more about the situation. Unfortunately, the plot is not fully exploited. Shame!

This feature film shows that women can also be frowned upon if they talk to other people’s children at a playground. Especially if they point out that the real parents are not doing their job properly, particularly when it comes to supervision.

To conclude:

This film leaves a strange and sad impression, mainly thanks to Sigourney Weaver’s performance, which is truly inspired by her tormented character, unable to turn the page on the tragedy she experienced in the past. We see her gradually come back to life through her contact with this lost young girl, who still needs to be educated, which will enable her to fulfil the role of mother, the role she would have liked to play in any case. But this transfer will obviously have consequences for her psychology and will cause turmoil around her.

A film that has a strange effect, but which may lack emotion, but that’s not too important, because the result is still quite moving and it’s highly likely that this was the aim of the director and producer after all.

A beautiful, touching film that leaves no one unmoved. It is not a gem, but it is worth seeing once. We will always remember that Sigourney Weaver is once again excellent!