The Dead Girl

Writer-director Karen Moncrieff's (Blue Car) sophomore film is a multi-narrative story revolving around the discovery of a serial killer's most recent victim. The Dead Girl begins with a sequence in which a depressed and lonely woman (Toni Collette) finds a body in a field beside her house, after which—tired of her bedridden mother's (Piper Laurie) insults—she becomes involved with a sleazy supermarket clerk. Next, a forensics grad student mistakenly believes that the remains are those of her long-absent sister. Then, the brilliant Mary Beth Hurt takes center stage as a slatternly woman who resents her husband going off on long drives (during his absence, she discovers what appear to be trophies taken from victims of the serial killer in one of the storage units he rents out). Marcia Gay Harden gives an exceptionally affecting performance as the mother of the dead girl (a hot-tempered prostitute played stridently by Brittany Murphy), whose last hours are played out in the film's final act. While Moncrieff has written some effective scenes and coaxed a few very strong performances (especially from Hurt, Harden, and Collette) out of the ensemble cast, The Dead Girl, like so many films with interlocking stories, often lacks consistency, both in terms of content and execution. Still, its strengths make this a strong optional purchase. (F. Swietek)