Pluskylang Great Film overall

Derrick Gibbons An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Kayden This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

kaichita I thought Girl was a funny film adaptation of the book. The book, to me, was better because while reading it, I wasn't subjected to the horrible music in the movie. I like the storyline and the concept and the characters, but the songs that were performed in the film are AWFUL, making this a very bad film in general. If you can fast forward thru all the cheesy music, you'll enjoy this film a lot more. I liked the Portland-area setting but the movie was filmed in Los Angeles. I've seen this movie several times at around 4 in the morning on obscure movie channels. Dominique Swain is truly the star of this film and her parents are also incredibly funny. Tara Reid does a good acting job also, but Selma Blair just can't act. Period.

radicalcowboy I thought the story line of the movie was OK. I agree the storyline was a bit trite; The way Andrea appears to "outgrow" TOdd at the end and just leaves him I thought was a bit overdone. It makes Andrea a pretty shallow character. I thought the best character was the Tara Reid character. I saw how she could stretch herself a little her when comparing the character she played in American Pie. The underlying theme that each of the characters lived such vastly different lives and yet orbited each other as friends in the same universe was the best part of the film....however I thought the soundtrack was excellent, excellent. I think that is what saved the movie. ANybody know if there is a soundtrack available for this?

aimless-46 I have probably spent more time on "Girl" than it warrants, just consider this a public service to prospective viewers who are unable to make head or tail out of the wide range of comments already posted. As to the quality of its adaptation from the novel, I won't go there because there is no purpose in "apples to oranges" comparisons and many others have relentlessly addressed the adaptation issue.Bottom line the movie version of "Girl" is a mess-which can be guessed without even viewing. Made-for-cable movies back in 1998 were generally lousy and not the mix of quality that they are in 2005. Neither director Jonathan Kahn nor writer David Tolchinsky had done a feature before 1998's "Girl" and neither has done anything since then. Just do the math. It is poor storytelling that dooms "Girl" despite generally competent production and acting. The editing has so many "jump cuts" that editing classes could use it as an example of continuity problems. "Girl" is pretty much what you would have if "Almost Famous" had been a long episode of "My So-Called Life". Dominique Swain plays the main character (Andrea Marr), basically the Penny Lane character in "Almost Famous". Swain's usual acting style is to brazen her way through roles, subtlety and nuance are not words that have ever been used to describe her performances. But in "Girl" she comes closest to a carefully crafted performance and actually shows some restraint. Perhaps this is because of her voice-over narration, which serves as a counterpoint to her actions on the screen. She has a nice voice when reined in and she was still very cute in 1998.The most obvious problem when adapting a novel is that the screenplay can include only a fraction of the material. The more characters included in the adaptation, the more shallow the character development. This is one of "Girl's" most obvious flaws as there is little reason to connect or care about any of the supporting characters, their quirks exist but we receive no background information so we can never understand why. There is Rebecca (Summer Phoenix) – a big-time grunge music fan who rambles on constantly about music trivia and sex. Rebecca gets the movie's best lines. There is Darcy (Selma Blair) – a walking eating disorder who is supposed to be Andrea's best friend although all they choose to showcase is her resentment of Andrea. There is Cybil (Tara Reid) - A nihilist grunge rocker with a bad home life and a lust for Andrea. Despite Tara Reid being shockingly good in this role (by far her best performance ever) the part is so poorly written and underdeveloped that it would have been best to omit it entirely. There are Kevin (Channon Roe) & Richard (Christopher Masterson) - class geeks who appear in the school cafeteria as part of Cybil's band and seem to have otherwise been omitted from the screenplay. Finally there is Todd (Sean Patrick Flannery) who is Andrea's main love interest and seems embarrassed about even being associated with this movie-he and Swain have no chemistry and seem genuinely uncomfortable together.Girl's fatal flaw is that it can't decide if it is a comedy, a drama, or a coming-of-age story. Since the humor is confined to an occasional witty line it isn't much of a comedy, the only indication that it was meant to be a comedy is some over-the-top humor about an abusive jock being hit over the head with a board and knocked out. Once is not enough as this nonsense is repeated later in the film. Although not even remotely funny it apparently is there to let the viewer know that this is a comedy as there are never any consequences to those committing the criminal assault (insert "Three Stooges" here). The comedy aspect is finally abandoned and the last few minutes treat us to Lifetime triple feature of teen suicide, bulimia, and homosexuality. These are tacked on with insufficient explanation, apparently because the writer and director sensed that the comedy angle was weak and they needed to qualify it as a coming-of-age story.This genre splitting ultimately undermines the Andrea character who despite Swain's best efforts comes across as a cobbled together mix of inconsistent and conflicting motivations and behaviors-making her impossible to identify with or care about. She is intelligent (headed for an Ivy League school), beautiful, self-assured, adventurous, and has a lot of friends. You have seen this character before in "Say Anything" but in "Girl" she overnight becomes one of the most hated heroines in teen comedy history. Meaning you have sympathy only for her various victims as she virtually rapes a guy to have her first sex, unfeelingly abandons her friends for cooler ones, explores her emerging femininity without regard to the consequences, and generally acts more eight than eighteen. Swain is physically perfect for the "Say Anything" type of heroine but this works against her so that her transformation into parental nightmare just doesn't ring true.Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

Emeraldies21 I read this book years before they made it a movie. I so loved the book. Years later i was watching TV with my best friend (who also loved the book) and it came on the movie channel. I love this movie. I can understand where a guy might think this a bad movie. But i think you have to be a girl to understand and really appreciate this movie. Give it a chance. Its like a coming of age movie but more. Andrea is this strait a student thats been sheltered and its her senior year and feels like she needs to experience more before going to college. She falls for this beautiful lead singer of a band, the color green. She thinks he will change her life when really in the end she changes his. Its a great movie. I really recommend it to any female, and any guy willing to have an open mind and not be like a total stupid male.