The Girl in the Park (2007)
Average Rating: 5.7/10
Reviews Counted: 14
Fresh: 10 | Rotten: 4
Sigourney Weaver delivers a towering performance in this poignant meditation on unresolved grief.
Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 2
Fresh: 1 | Rotten: 1
Sigourney Weaver delivers a towering performance in this poignant meditation on unresolved grief.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.1/5
User Ratings: 1,413
Movie Info
A socially isolated woman still haunted by the disappearance of her three-year-old daughter 15 years ago obsesses over the prospect that a troubled young woman whom she has recently befriended may in fact be her long-lost daughter in The Lake House director/screenwriter David Auburn's affecting psychological drama. Sigourney Weaver stars as the long-grieving mother, and The Devil Wears Prada's Kate Bosworth stars as the mixed-up teen who becomes the object of the dejected woman's hopeful
Sep 12, 2008 Wide
Dec 1, 2009
Blue Sky Media
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All Critics (16) | Top Critics (2) | Fresh (10) | Rotten (4) | DVD (2)
Essentially about loss, guilt and regret, Auburn's film also examines Julia's increasingly unhealthy obsession with her surrogate daughter, which gives it an air of uneasy tension that never amounts to much.
Top CriticAuds can see what Auburn was aiming for, but his portrait of grieving and wishful thinking doesn't connect emotionally. He's not helped by Weaver's brittle, unsympathetic perf, which borders on caricature.
An overwrought melodrama with bold intentions but poor execution.
The film stretches credibility a little with the coincidences that could yet make Louise the missing girl, but gives the actors plenty to work with.
while there is a lot to like in Auburn's tightly focused film, it never fully pulls together.
Auburn leaves too many dramatic holes and blows his potentially explosive 'Festen' moment by allowing a confrontation over dinner to fizzle into anti-climax.
The kindest adjectives to describe Weaver's performance would be 'overwrought' and 'unsympathetic'.
Weaver's still unresolved grief, subtly hits every note that Changeling plinked or plonked like a honky-tonk hokum artist.
There's a prissy self-congratulation about early parts of David Auburn's family-bereavement drama, though it got to me eventually.
It is not without its problems, but this is, at the very least, an attention-grabbing first feature with a fine example of ensemble playing from its cast.
Impressively directed, sharply written and emotionally involving drama with a terrific central performance from Sigourney Weaver.
Wryly amusing, achingly poignant and pleasingly understated, with a stand-out performance from Weaver.
...a sporadically overwrought but mostly compelling film...
Audience Reviews for The Girl in the Park
Super Reviewer
Amazingly this story really did suck me in. It is by no means fast paced, or especially exciting, just a quiet little film about a women who's chid is abducted, and how she has gotten on with her life for 16 years never knowing what happened to her daughter. She meets a troubled young girl named Louise who is the same age her daughter would have been now,and becomes convinced it is her missing Maggie. You don't find out until the end if it is or not, but honestly it barely matters by then. This is a really sweet story about two damaged women and how they help each other. Nicely cast - I was surprised to see Keri Russell is not in this as much as I would have thought (or liked), but Kate Bosworth is really good as Louise - I usually do find her an okay actress, I am not sure why she is so panned all the time. Sigourney looks a little old at the beginning of this film, to have such a young child, but her age works fine in the plus 16 years part. Brandon Sexton I didn't recognise - wow, he has changed!
Not a movie for all I would think, but may well be worth a look if you enjoy dramas.
Super Reviewer
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January 19, 2007:
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Movie: ID: 770672962 Title: The Girl in the Park Release Date: 2008-09-12 00:00:00.0 MPAA: 4 Status: 1
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