noodlelube

I was so charmed and impressed by the performance of Andrea Riseborough that I'm glad I watched. I can't believe she did not win awards or become catapulted to a household name with more major leading roles. This side of the story was well done, and really all the actors did a nice job. It's not their fault the the modern storyline weaved in felt so pointless. It just kind of was. Madonna did well with the direction and the music was great. I just wish it all hadn't been so bogged down by other story, which did not seem connected enough, got too much run time, and just left me wondering why bother.

What a shame that they did such a rushed, sloppy ending and made some lazy, poor decisions along the way. It was an interesting story and had potential. The daughter was very good, and there was a great performance by the other abductee in the hospital. The mom, unfortunately, was not well played (or written), despite her being a great comedy actress.

It pretty much went to hell when the mom confronts the teacher publicly and loudly at the school. Not believable at all.

If they needed for people to know about it, and for it to later upset and embarrass the daughter, they could have just set it up so that they were accidentally overheard in a private conversation and then gossiped about. There was also zero surprise in the reveal of the teacher either, considering the flashbacks were really not vague enough. Wasted opportunities to make this much better.

The most uncomfortable part of the movie is the fact that a real human 14yr old girl played the part of this hyper-sexualized character. I'm sure they could have cast someone older to play the younger role. On top of that, either the director or Chloe, herself, insisted on so much excessive 'sultry-eyed', duck-faced pouting that is way overdone and dragged out.

For that, I was constantly reminded that she was Acting! Drama! And found it creepy and annoying.

I feel like most of the praise is from lecherous men just rubbing their hands together, licking their lips in anticipation. "Oh what a talented little darling!" Yuck On the other hand, I thought the entire rest of the cast did an excellent job, and especially Eddie in his ever changing tones of awkward charm, 'innocent' brattiness, to deeply disturbed. He nailed the atmosphere of it all, along with the perfect accent you didn't even need to think twice about, (or get taken out of the story to consider the 'acting' until afterwards). It just felt very natural.

The story itself is intriguing and compelling and I wasn't expecting the turns it took. I just wish it took the turns sooner. The first half spends too much time dragging out more of the insignificant points (and just letting the camera make love to Chloe), and then abruptly races through the more impactful and dramatic parts in the second half. Blake did well with what she had but I would have liked more treatment of her character and what happened to her.

Didn't seem like Chloe felt too much or was changed by events that happened either. Her ending seemed fairly shallow with a kind of joyous 'well home still sucks I guess, so YAY! I'm going to meet up with this random dude and do this now' I mean, I was no angel myself at 14, and might have run off into the next unknown, but she had just been pummeled by a series of truly traumatic events. Just seemed a little too tidy and carefree.