Customer Reviews

The Girl in the Park

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've been waiting to see this movie, but I was disappointed. Signourney Weaver's performance seemed flat and colorless, the time lapse left too many unanswered questions, and the ending was left hanging.

Julia Sandburg and her husband Doug are the parents of two children, Chris and his younger sister Maggie. Julia is a nightclub singer whose career seems about to take off when tragedy strikes. Three year old Maggie vanishes on an outing to the park. She disappears from the playground in just seconds, when Julia's back is turned. Julia searches the almost-deserted park, screaming Maggie's name, but there is only silence.

The story then skips 16 years into the future. The Sandburg family has changed dramatically. Julia, now divorced from Doug, is lonely and isolated when she meets Louise, a hard-living girl who is the age Maggie would now be. Julia and Louise develop a relationship similar to mother and daughter. Then Julia begins to believe that Louise might be her long-lost child. I won't add any spoilers, but be prepared for many unanswered questions. I gave the movie a 3-star rating because it was engrossing, if unsatisfactory at the end.

A little girl disappears from a park, her parents eventually divorce, her brother grows up and is about to get married, and then a young woman appears in the mother's life. The young woman may or may not be the adult version of the little girl. We never know for sure. However, there is plenty of drama to keep you intrigued and sympathetic towards the still-grieving mother, who wants a daughter figure in her life any way she can find one.

As par for Weinstein they released a bare bones disc with no advertising so customers have been surprised in finding this little gem on the shelf without much fanfare. Sigourney has another solid performance cataloged here and by the time the credits roll she was really the only reason to watch this.

The story follows a perfect-style life musician-mom with the stereotypical good family in middle class NYC. After the tragic disappearance of her young daughter at a park they are visiting, we get subjected to an emotional 95 minutes of a mother's suffering and her wallowing in the inability to get past the self blame. Some standard supporting showings appear from Kate Bosworth and Keri Russell, and even some quick bites from Elias Koteas as a post-loss intimacy interest (have seen him in six films this last year).

The film quality is good, as is the 5.1 sound and it runs at a long and sometimes awkward 110 minutes. There are many moments where you feel yourself yelling at Sigourney's character as she performs the painful rituals of child-stalking, mistrusting bad people and shunning the ones who love her. But she showed her usual excellent prose and believability in long-term suffering (as the film spans 16 years). The pace is slow at times and some of the conversations can feel irrelevant, but the slight detraction of wanderings are outweighed by a meaningful film about a mother's loss.

No supplements, so four for the film and quality. English and Spanish subs, English language only, Region 1.

"The Girl in the Park" deals with grief and how this grief insinuates itself into one's life to the extent that the afflicted person is unable to connect normally with other people. Sigourney Weaver plays the grieving mother,Julia Sandburg, who almost two decades earlier had lost her young daughter at the playground. The pain, guilt, and grief of it all has cost Julia her marriage, and resulted in an awkward and distant relationship with her son Chris (Alessandro Nivola) who is engaged to be married to his pregnant girlfriend Celeste (Keri Russell). Julia functions on auto-pilot, lacking the ability to experience happiness and can't seem to bring herself to be happy for Chris, who harbors much resentment against his mother. Celeste tries to bridge this chasm between mother and son, though her efforts bear little fruit.

Things take a dramatic turn when Julia helps out a distraught young woman, Louise (Kate Bosworth) who turns out to be a con artist. For some inexplicable reason, Julia is drawn to Louise, and slowly begins to entertain the fantasy that Louise might well be her long-lost daughter. When Chris discovers this unhealthy bond developing between Julia and Louise (whose real name Maggie convinces Julia that she was right), he confronts his mother and things get really ugly.

With the exception of Sigourney Weaver's compelling and finely nuanced portrayal of the grieving, confused, and emotionally disconnected mother, the rest of the cast could have sleep-walked through their roles - the son is supposed to be very angry, yet Nivola's characterisation appears uninspiring and a bit flat. Bosworth's role is all angst and failed to connect with me. Keri Russell is charming as the conciliatory daughter-in-law, yet this role is no stretch for her (I'd suggest watching Waitress (Widescreen Edition) that showcase her true acting talent.

The story also suffers from a rather predictable and tired plot which tends to drag at times. Weaver's strong performance makes this worth my time, but others may want to rent it first. Also recommended :The Deep End of the Ocean.

I got the dvd in record time, but it was scratched a bit, and skipped during certain parts of the movie. Otherwise everything was good

This is another good Sigourney Weaver movie that barely anyone has ever heard of. It's a drama and at times a psychological-thriller. Weaver keeps the storyline going and the movie keeps you guessing. Just when you think you've figured it out the story takes another turn. This movie is another hidden gem of a film that is definately worth the small price on amazon. =)

"The Girl in the Park" is an unsettling movie about the shattering effect on the parents of losing a child. David Auburn who wrote the screenplay for The Lake House (Widescreen Edition) leaves us grasping for something definitive, much as a parent wants unanswered questions resolved. Sigourney Weaver plays Julia Sandburg. She changes gears well from the loving young mother to the haunted woman who can find no peace. Auburn's screenplay here, however, jumps from the opening abduction scene to 16 years (think I recall that #) later. The audience is left trying to piece together what happened. Alessandro Nivola who was in "Junebug" plays Julia's son Chris. An icy gulf has formed between the mother and her remaining child, as if her ability to love was taken from her. Aided by his father Doug played by David Rasche, Chris is a successful builder and is on the verge of becoming a father and a husband to Celeste, played by the lovely Keri Russell. Julia pours herself into her job at a bank. She gets played by a lovely young hustler Louise who cons Julia out of some cash. Struck by the resemblance to her lost daughter, Julia seems to emotionally adopt Louise, especially upon learning that she also has the name of her abducted daughter Maggie. Kate Bosworth plays Louise as a maladjusted foster kid out to take advantage of people if it's the easy way. Brendan Sexton III has a nice cameo as Louise's brother Stuart, a scrabble enthusiast. The wedding dinner scene with the blow-up between Chris and Julia is riveting. The open-ended conclusion leaves mixed signals about whether Julia has actually found her daughter, giving the film more of a European than American flavor. There are good performances that ground the film and make it worth watching. Enjoy!