REVIEW
In The Dead Girl, Writer-Director Karen Moncrieff beautifully weaves together the stories of five women through the gruesome and untimely death of one ragged and troubled girl. The seemingly disconnected lives and stories of abuse and mistreatment are subtly and concisely connected. Thanks to one dead girl, four women get a second chance at life.

In the first of five segments, a sickly and slight Tony Collette plays “The Stranger” - the dispirited and unappreciated Arden who spends her days taking care of her bitter bed-ridden mother (Piper Laurie). Life is bleak. Future joy non-existent . . . until Arden finds the dead girl in a field. Her life is suddenly transformed. She earns notoriety in her small town, manages to stand up to her overbearing mother and begins an uncomfortable relationship with an unnerving grocery store clerk (Giovanni Ribisi). Not much can stand up to the masterful Collette but Ribisi proves to be her near perfect onscreen match.

Still attempting to figure out relationships, we move on to segment two – “The Sister” - where we meet Leah (Rose Byrne), a forensic student who has been suffering for the past fifteen years in a family that refuses to move on. Examining the body of the dead girl, she is convinced, whether by wishful thinking or scientific evidence, that the body is that of her missing sister. Failing in her attempts to convince her mother (Mary Steenburgen) of the need to find closure and move on, Leah attempts to put the past behind her with the help of Derek (James Franco). Byrne is moving and poignant, creating a powerful sense of sorrow and frustrated hope through a quiet role.

In “The Wife”, Moncrieff begins to truly hit her stride. A pitch perfect Mary Beth Hurt plays the self-victimizing Ruth who discovers that her forever absent husband has a secret. In unearthing this secret, Hurt realizes she has power, has the ability to turn the tables on this man she so despises. But extracting revenge means turning the status quo on its head. And every woman has her price. Hurt’s turmoil is genuine, real and utterly commands the screen.

In the most moving and potent segment of the film, “The Mother”, an excellent Marcia Gay Harden traces the bitter and haunting steps of her wayward daughter. Deciphering the reasons for her daughter’s escape from home so many years ago, Harden seeks to make things right after having made them so hopelessly wrong. Her performance is quiet yet potent, apprehensive but resolute.

The final segment of the film brings us at long last to “The Dead Girl”. Brittany Murphy is picture perfect as the soon to be murder victim, alternately screaming profanities and lovingly gushing over her young daughter. Loose ends are tied up, answers are made clear, and we watch helplessly as Murphy moves ever closer to her demise. While ridden with the potential for confusion and awkward disconnect, this last segment leaves much to the imagination. And provided with just enough direction and insight, we are allowed to come to our own fantastic conclusions.

With an excellent cast and insightful direction, The Dead Girl is subtle, impressive, and haunting. It is a uniquely creative and artistic look into the twisted ins-and-outs of female abuse, rage and the destructive work of a serial killer. It gives it's audience the freedom to poke around a bit in a unfamiliar realm with the hope of making us all the more thoughtful for the time spent in this foreign world.