Directed By Jade Halley Bartlett

Starring – Martin Freeman, Jenna Ortega, Bashir Salahuddin

The Plot – A talented young writer (Ortega) embarks on a creative odyssey when her teacher (Freeman) assigns a project that entangles them both in an increasingly complex web. As lines blur and their lives intertwine, professor and protégé must confront their darkest selves while straining to preserve their individual sense of purpose and the things they hold most dear.

Rated R for sexual content, adult language throughout, some teen smoking and drinking.

Miller’s Girl (2024) Official Trailer – Martin Freeman, Jenna Ortega (youtube.com)

POSITIVES

Odds are the people seeking out a film like “Miller’s Girl” are doing so for the opportunity of seeing Freeman and Ortega dominate an unfamiliar genre that expand on their capabilities, and in this sense the dazzling duo make the most of the occasion, tapping into an amplified-to-eleven version of their respective familiarities that feel like the only thing that makes sense in a film where nearly nothing does. This is especially the case for Ortega, who taps into some of the same dark impulses and expressions as those of her iconic Wednesday Addams role, but this time with a sultry seductiveness that effortlessly permeates the confidence and control over her prey, which feels all the more remarkable considering she’s given some of the most laughably bad dialogue to construct such an imposing and commanding presence. For Freeman, it’s more of the lovable loser that he’s exploited throughout such memorable turns in an otherwise prestigious career, but this time with an underlining element of loneliness that fuels his character’s morbid curiosity, affording him the internal moral freedom to seek adoration in someone, anyone who isn’t his abandoning and insensitive wife, with plenty of tense engagements between he and Ortega that fuels the fires of their anything-but-romantic complex chemistry. Aside from the performances, the only other credit that I can give “Miller’s Girl” is some of the creative impulses of first time director, Bartlett, who has clearly done her homework towards conjuring a scintillating stage that is defined so thoroughly in the measures she’s able express in the movie’s illustrious presentation. In basing the story in the south, Bartlett’s steamy scenery casts an almost hypnotic glow in combining green vegetation with low-hanging fog, and when combined with Daniel Brothers’ dreamy cinematography constructs such surreal imagery that feels purely psychological, especially with corresponding focus on Ortega and Freeman’s respective features, as they hesitate towards acting on feelings that feel so overpowering as a result of the immersive depiction that puts us front and center with the characters’ various daydreams.

NEGATIVES

Even if you’re able to get through the slimy and seedy set-up of a middle aged teacher forcefully relenting throughout an affair with his 18-year-old student, “Miller’s Girl” fails on nearly every expression and exploration that it continuously seeks out, leaving this a boring bewilderment that even at 87 minutes tested my patience in a platitude of ways. For starters, nothing feels remotely believable or honest about its execution, either in a girl cleverly named Cairo Sweet, a school that very rarely seems to have other students or faculty outside of those in the main ensemble, the various southern accents that are inconsistent at best, or some of the most cringe-inducing dialogue that I have experienced in quite sometime. Whether in the unnecessary overhead narration mumbled by Ortega, which is meant to articulate an author’s accounting over the proceedings, or the real time interactions of the characters, the dialogue lacks the kind of humbling humanity that feels relatable on even a personal level, instead catering towards a try-hard emphasis that consistently breaks the investment of the audience with lines that purely feel enhanced for the movie’s marketing, in turn eviscerating any semblance of nuance for the occasion. While I fully expect uncomfortable dialogue in erotic thrillers from my days of watching other erotic thrillers like “Color of Night” or “Disclosure”, the kind articulated here are downright embarassing, feeling like they originate from a movie with incredible self-awareness, not one that evidently takes itself far too seriously. This tonal misfiring is perhaps the single biggest issue that I have with the film because I was constantly plagued by unintentional laughter in a movie that plays it straight from the hip. If “Miller’s Girl” was a clever spoof on 90’s erotic thrillers, then maybe it stood a chance enhancing the material, but as an original story with far too many familiar cliches on films of the genre that came before it, there’s nothing here that ever feels original or daring, leaving too much predictability in the construct of the outline, with very little redeeming quality towards its appeal. On top of this, the movie is an erotic thriller that isn’t remotely erotic or thrilling, with obvious reservations from its provocative original screenplay that has since been scrubbed into a toothless shell, and a complete absence of tension or suspense, as a result of the movie’s strange sequencing that it’s never able to garner momentum from. Because the script takes so long in manifesting and elevating the essential plot and conflict, it leaves little room in the rest of the film to capably exploit the range of uncertainty and stakes that serve as a result of an illegal relationship, succumbing to a rushed execution inside of screeching-halt pacing that grows all the more tedious without a single solitary scene or sequence resembling anything memorable in its favor. Obviously, all of this would be less impactful if the characters themselves were fascinating or at the very least honorable, but between Freeman’s lack of perception to the outside world and how they see him spending time with a young girl, Ortega’s Cairo, who makes an actual project out of ruining the lives of not one but two faculty members, or even the innocent parties like Freeman’s on-screen wife (Played by Dagmara Dominczyk), who forcefully goads him into spending more time with Cairo, the film doesn’t give us the opportunity to properly invest in either side of the moral dilemma, and instead leaves us as uninterested parties on the outside looking in, which only further diminishes the value and impact of the film’s climax. That’s a perfect transition to the final twenty minutes of the movie, where an inevitable confrontation turns into underscored ignorance that serves as the exclamation point to an entirely wasteful engagement. As to where the rest of the film to this point bored or humiliated, the resolution of the film’s conflict inscribed anger with its underwhelming form of defined justice and lack of narrative closure to the proceedings, leaving only an uneventful ending that not only fizzles under the pressure of fireworks, but also serves as the single loudest echo to this being a complete waste of time, money and talent.

OVERALL
“Miller’s Girl” doesn’t do its homework on the vitally integral steps of being an erotic thriller, instead abandoning suspense and sensuality in ways that directly undercut the magnitude of Freeman and Ortega’s heavy lifting. While Bartlett’s work as a commanding director exudes many endearing qualities inside of atmospherically stirring visuals, her limitations in storytelling are unfortunately most defining, leaving this an uneventfully dull and compromising debut helming that with the inclusion of an inappropriately seedy relationship at the film’s forefront, should have her staying after class for a discussion on appropriate framing devices as a means of desperate entertainment.

My Grade: 3/10 or D-