Review of The Good Girl (2002) by John A — 27 Apr 2009

Director Miguel Arteta and his excellent cast craft some very interesting and well developed characters, and they manage to create a number of genuinely thoughtful and emotional moments. But they do so while trying to buck the weight of a terribly flawed screenplay from Mike White, whose work on the scripts for Orange County and School of Rock was decent, but his transition to drama in The Good Girl is erratic and poorly thought out.

He disrupts character work for bad jokes, he disengages the audience with unnecessary plot devices, and he damages tone with an atrocious voice over. All the fault for the film's failure lies with him, and it really pisses me off.

Because here's a director with great vision and a great eye for casting, who obviously has a fondness for the material and wants to do it right, who deserved a better chance at making a successful film than this script gave him.

I really wanted to like this movie, and at times it almost had me despite the flaws. But on the whole it just was too patchy and inconsistent. Major bummer, spoiled potential.