Review of In Her Skin (2009) by Jesse O — 11 Sep 2011

Not a terrible movie. Just one that, unfortunately considering its based on a real event, isn't structurally sound nor is it that well written in some regards. And the ending is just absolutely shit in the sense that it almost tries to justify Caroline's actions by having her, for the first time in the movie, feeling good about herself at the end of the movie.

The last shot is of Caroline looking better than ever smiling at the sky. What the fuck???? I don't know who decided to go with that as the ending, but they're completely retarded. At least switch the stuff around, have the Caroline stuff air BEFORE the family has the funeral, so there's that impact of what her actions have caused Rachel's family to go through, to at least give it some emotional weight.

Having the Caroline scene at the prison last is just completely senseless and it takes away from what the movie should've really been about at the end and that's how, in a way, the family was driven closer together because of this madwoman's actions.

Don't have the movie end with the killer feeling happy about her current situation. How incredibly stupid of them. Other than that, unfortunately, the movie isn't that well written so it almost feels like an above average TV movie.

It feels like a movie you'd see on Lifetime and not something you'd actually pay to see. The movie is basically three stories in one: the family's side of her disappearance, the murderer's side of the events, and Rachel's side.

And this is where the movie really falls apart, these segments on their own just don't gel at all. It's understandable that you'd like to get as much of the real story across, but at least do so if you know what you're doing.

The movie has no flow, one scene you could be watching the parents dealing with the disappearance and the next scene will be Caroline four years prior to the murder. It just didn't mesh well together and that really made the movie a disaster.

The reason this movie gets 2 stars is because of Ruth Bradley's performance, she was fantastic with the crap she was given. She was really quite convincing as a person who had SEVERE emotional issues who could lose it at just any moment.

To the point that I believe that Ruth must have some pent up frustrations that she got to let out in this role. If it wasn't for her, I don't know how bad this movie would be. I wouldn't even say it would have been bad, because the rest of the cast was decent enough, it was just an incompetently put together movie.

But Ruth Bradley was really the highlight of an underwhelming, unfortunately so, movie.