The title character of "The Dead Girl" is introduced to us as a corpse, rotting in the sun in the hills near Los Angeles,
and discovered by a woman who's not feeling so great herself. The dead girl's identity is a mystery at first, eventually revealed to us, but the film is not a whodunit. It is, rather, an anthology of stories about various women's connections to the body, both now and before the girl's death. Characters from one segment do not overlap with those from another (with one crucial exception); the stories relate thematically instead, with mothers and daughters enduring fractured relationships, and with every female protagonist in desperate need of escaping a bad situation. The body's discoverer is Arden, who, played by Toni Collette, exemplifies the type of role Collette is expert at: mousey, self-conscious, and unsure. Arden is a full-time caretaker for her ailing mother (Piper Laurie), an emotionally abusive and mean-spirited old hag who has essentially made her daughter a prisoner in her own house. Arden finds the possibility of escape with a grocery bag-boy named Rudy (Giovanni Ribisi), and they embark on a rather twisted relationship.
To read the rest of this review, click on the relevant link below.