There’s been so much talk in the media about Miller’s Girl that I was expecting something more. For the most part, it plays like a Red Shoe Diaries episode that has been stretched out to an hour and a half and there’s no sex. Sorry. If you don’t want to read this blog any further, I wouldn’t blame you. Not since millions of horn dog boys got all excited about Jennifer’s Body and then it’s just some movie about demonic possession or something, will people be disappointed by a movie. It might by why it was dumped in theaters back in January.
Jenna Ortega is the latest It Girl which means she’s been sexualized by the media because of her barely legal status. However, Ortega seems to be touting it a little to her benefit. But if you’re expecting some sex between her character and Martin Freeman’s in the movie, then whatever fan fiction can be written would be more erotic. This movie is a constant seesaw between a goofy sex comedy and an erotic Southern gothic drama.
Set at prestigious school (with only a few students and faculty on hand) in Tennessee where kudzu is all around for the eye to see, Cairo Sweet (Ortega) is the 18-year-old senior whose wealthy parents aren’t at home. And apparently her mansion is close to the school campus as she usually walks to work. (You know, why hire two more actors when you don’t have to.) She decides to seduce her creative writing teacher, Jonathan Albert Miller (Freeman), upon the suggestion of her more rambunctious friend, Winnie Black (Gideon Adlon).
And that’s it. Not a lot happens. Miller is upset because he hasn’t published anything since he married his wife, Beatrice June Harper (Dagmara Domincyzk) and their marriage seems on the rocks. His colleague and fellow teacher, Boris Fillmore (Bashir Salahuddin), seems to be more open about how he is attracted to the female students. The movie, written and directed by Jade Halley Bartlett, could’ve examined how some teachers get into education because they want to be around younger people. Or another angle would be how some students can be attracted to their teachers.
Yet this movie doesn’t really land right. There’s not much erotica between Freeman and Ortega who have no chemistry and hardly any activity except for one brief fantasy scene of dry-humping. There’s something more at play between Cairo and Winnie. Ortega seems to want to break down this image of her as a nice girl even before it gets started. And she is very talented as is Freeman. Yet both seem wasted here in what someone who’s led a very sheltered life would consider sex. Even Ned Flanders wouldn’t consider this erotic.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 