- Search:
- Time Out worldwide
- Web

Film

What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases

The Girl in the Park (2008)

Director: David Auburn

Time Out rating

Average user rating

2 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

Writer-director David Auburn’s trauma-drama will ring bells with any parent who has lost a child even for a matter of minutes. That feeling of panic is well suggested by Sigourney Weaver’s nightclub singer Julia Sandburg when, during a realistic and tense opening scene, her toddler Maggie disappears from Central Park. Cut to 16 years later: Julia, now separated and lonely chances upon Kate Bosworth’s unkempt teenage tearaway, Louise, and memories of her daughter come flooding back. When Louise moves in, Julia begins to enjoy life again. Yet she’s convinced there’s more to the youngster than meets the eye…

Essentially about loss, guilt and regret, Auburn’s film also examines Julia’s increasingly unhealthy obsession with her surrogate daughter, which gives it an air of uneasy tension that never amounts to much. Weaver and Bosworth provide decent interaction, but the ambiguous ending disappoints.

Author: Derek Adams

Time Out London Issue 1998, Dec 4 - 10, 2008

Email Tweet Share

User reviews of this film

Chris Dobson said...

Posted on Sep 22 2010 01:10 Well worth a watch, the first scene is fantastic. Sigourney Weaver is fantastic throughout, however the only problem with the film is as stated above, the ambiguity. There never seems to be a climax, however the film really does seem to draw you in and get you quite emotionally involved, well me anyway. Please do watch it.

Report as inappropriate
Mphoentle said...

Posted on Nov 12 2009 09:24 The idea of the director is there but it leave us the viwers with many an answered quetions

Report as inappropriate