The Girl in the Park

UK Release: 5th December 2008

Watched on Recorded TV: Friday 2nd December 2011

Rating: 15

Genre: Drama

Runtime: 1hr 50mins

Tagline: A mothers love never dies

IMDb Plot Synopsis: Enduringly traumatized by the disappearance of her 3-year-old daughter 15 years ago, Julia Sandburg has cut herself off from anyone once near and dear to her, including her husband Doug and her son Chris, who tried for years to penetrate her wall of isolation and despair, without success. But when Julia meets Louise, a troubled young woman with a checkered past, all Julia's old psychic wounds painfully resurface, as does her illogical and increasingly irrational hope that Louise may be the daughter she lost so long ago.

My Review: The Girl in the Park was a bit of a depressing film. It works only because of the mystery that surrounds Sigourney Weaver’s 3 year old daughter’s disappearance. Sigourney Weaver, also, keeps you engaged as a women, 16 years later, is still traumatised by her loss. She is numb and dislocated from her family, and it’s only when she meets a girl named Louise(played by Kate Bosworth) in a coffee shop newly dumped and homeless that she begins to feel again. 

It starts to get interesting when it appears that Louise may not be all that she seems, in fact Weaver starts to believe that she may, indeed, be Maggie her long lost daughter. The story then spirals into a web of intrigue swaying between the possibility that she is or isn’t Maggie. But it’s Weaver’s family, including her son Chris, that keeps the film going. They, obviously, believe that she is going mad and is just blind with grief and it’s only until the end that we have any sort of answer. 

But the film is more than just a twisted mother and daughter relationship between Weaver and Bosworth as it began to go past the truth and more about them just needing each other and being friends. 

The cinematography was murky which matched the solemn mood of the film but I wasn’t a fan. There were many unnecessary scenes and I felt that it dragged on too long but was generally a good watch. 

Score: 6/10