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The Girl in the Book (2015)

Director:
Marya Cohn
COUNTRY
USA
GENRE
Drama
NORWEGIAN TITLE
-
RUNNING TIME
86 minutes
Producer:
Kyle Heller
Gina Resnick
Screenwriter:
Marya Cohn


Cast includes:

CHARACTER ACTOR/ACTRESS RATING
Alice Harvey Emily VanCamp
Young Alice Ana Mulvoy-Ten
Milan Daneker Michael Nyqvist
Emmett Grant David Call ½
Dad Michael Cristofer
Mom Talia Balsam

 

Review

Poetic, semi-controversial tale from the fashionable world of writers and editors, in which Emily VanCamp and Ana Mulvoy-Ten play respectively an older and a younger version of the title character Alice – a daughter of two neglectful literary agents who as a teen finds herself becoming a little more than just a muse for a successful, middle-aged European novelist (Michael Nyqvist). Although writer/director Marya Cohn cannot hide her fascination for the milieu she's portraying or Mulvoy-Ten's alluring, Lolitaesque sensuality, she's not out to attract by romanticizing the relation between young Alice and the older writer even the slightest. Which is why, I suppose, the trained creep Nyqvist (Tillsammans) was recruited. He does well in getting the inappropriateness of his character's actions across, but both he and the rest of the film is arguably at its best in dealing with the surroundings and aftermath of the events. Mulvoy-Ten is a wonderful and amazing-looking young talent, but her work here doesn't really match Cohn's direction, and certainly not VanCamp's overly pragmatic performance. It's almost as if Alice and Alice isn't played by the same actress (sic!), which of course was sort of the point from Cohn's point of view, but although the contrast between the two actresses' performances makes for a valid thematic point of view and pushes Cohn's narrative style of switching back and forth in time to the forefront, it doesn't do the film any favours when it comes to making us empathize with and getting under the skin of the Alice character.

Copyright © 19.2.2017 Fredrik Gunerius Fevang

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