Customer Reviews

The New Girlfriend

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In this Australian 1999 film (originally titled "Envy"), a boy of sixteen or seventeen is drawn to a young woman of about the same age. Unfortunately, his taste is not good, for she and one of her "mates" abuse him in a scene that the boy's mother calls rape and the father thinks is something less. The father wants to let time heal his son, but the mother cannot let the matter go. Soon, things escalate between the mother and not just the girl but the girl and her two "mates."

I suppose that if one must find a genre into which to place "The New Girlfriend," horror is as good as any. But there are no great scares here. Rather, this film is character driven and reasonably strong in its characterizations. Moreover, this is a film in which the violence, mild by contemporary cinematic standards, has consequences. Indeed, the entire feud stems from the theft of a dress.

I think the film could have been much stronger, but the cast is solid, the film is more intelligent than many in the same vein, and 83 minutes is a relatively minor time investment.