God Help the Girl

Well, that was different.

The trailer for God Help the Girl came out in 2014 and I probably have watched it 15 or 20 times because I am a huge Belle and Sebastian fan. Christina even got me the soundtrack for Christmas and I have listened to it pretty consistently over the last six months. All these things had me convinced that the movie was going to be kinda Wes Anderson-y, quirky, twee, lighthearted. I mean, look at those reviews! "Charming!" Refreshingly unconventional!" "A delight!"

I don't know if I would call it any of those things.

To put it into Belle and Sebastian terms: I thought I was getting Century of Elvis and instead I got the Chalet Lines.

It's not as bleak as the Chalet Lines, but the whole plot (scattershot as it is) revolves around a girl who is living in an institution and is suffering from anorexia and depression.

There are charming moments: Anytime Cassie is on screen, the whole movie brightens up considerably. The canoeing scene is relaxed and great. James has some really great lines about music and bands. (Two that stand out: (1) The discussion about naming a band [*Doug paraphrasing* James: "Why do people who play music have to give themselves a name? It's ridiculous. There are three other lifeguards who work with me and we don't think we have to have a name just because we are a group." Cassie: "What about the Lifeboys?]; and (2) His feelings about David Bowie after Cassie says that the song she wants to write is a little bit like Bowie (*Doug paraphrasing* "Everyone goes through a Bowie phase, but you don't want to be like Bowie. I never shed a tear listening to Bowie. And that's what music should make you do.")

But it is also pretty heavy. And, yes, even though it was dealing with a heavier subject matter (I wasn't expecting to watch a movie where Eve pukes on the floor because her stomach isn't ready to hold food yet or to watch her go through depression jags on her couch), I was more than happy to give it a go. Some of the heaviness worked. For example, I thought the ending was great. It is bittersweet, not a solid happy ending or a solid sad ending across the board, but instead a varied ending with some happy, some sad, some indifferent endings for the characters.

The problem with the tone of the movie came with the performances. The movie Once has a similar kind of heavy and depressing vibe that runs through it, but the difference is that while the music is Once fits in with the story as they create music, some of the music in GHTG is done whimsically like a traditional movie musical (reality suspended, choreography, extra music). If the whole feel of the movie was quirky, this would have worked. Instead, it felt really out of place especially when followed by a scene of Eve taking her pills or in the hospital. I much preferred the straight-up performances.

And I think that best captures what I think about the movie overall. In the end, it never felt sufficiently...coherent. It's a muscle system that is missing all of the tendons and sinews and other connective tissue that tightly binds it together. There are great individual bits but it doesn't quite work together as a whole.

(Perhaps the greatest thing about the movie, though, is that Emily Browning as Eve, did a great job capturing the essence of a Belle and Sebastian female character. She is the cinematic version of Lazy Line Painter Jane, Judy, Sukey, and the others.)