Review of The Dead Girl (2006) by Sarah W — 19 Nov 2007

What sets apart The Dead Girl from other films is its unique narrative structure where a story about a dead girl is told in five seemingly unrelated chapters, however they all relate back to the ?dead girl? in some way and help to piece together what exactly happened.

The First chapter ?The Stranger? involves an unhappy and confused woman named Arden (Toni Collette) who finds the body of the dead girl. Second Chapter ?The Sister? tells the story of Leah (Rose Byrne) whose sister went missing 15 years ago; she believes that the body of the dead girl is that of her sister. ?The Wife? explores the story of an older woman who unintentionally finds some shocking evidence in a storage unit run by her husband. ?The mother? of the dead girl, searches for answers about her runaway daughter and visits the last place her daughter lived and makes startling discoveries that change the course of her own life. Lastly ?The Dead Girl? chronicles the last day of the dead girl herself (Brittany Murphy) and helps fill in the last few gaps of the story.

Some of the chapters worked really well in the film, with my favourite being ?The Mother? and although the main focus of the story was ?the dead girl? other possibilities for the characters were not explored which was disappointing.

The Dead Girl shows some decent writing which helped the performances of the actors and undoubtedly makes the film what it is. Aussie girls Toni Collette and Rose Byrne performed great in their selected ?chapter? but the ones to steal the show was Marcia Gay Harding who played ?the mother?, and Kerry Washington who played Rosetta who is found in ?the Mother? along side Harding.

While The Dead Girl may lack certain character development, it has the power to draw you in the somewhat complex lives of the individual characters and allow you to piece together the heartbreaking story of the dead girl.