VERY GOOD GIRLS
US, 2013, 91 minutes, colour.
Dakota Fanning, Elizabeth Olsen, Boyd Holbrook, Ellen Barkin, Clark Gregg, Richard Dreyfuss, Demi Moore, Peter Sarsgaard.
Directed by Naomi Foner.
Very Good Girls was written and directed by Naomi Foner, screenwriter, especially of the 1988 Running on Empty. Naomi Foner was previously married to director Stephen Gyllenhaal.
This is a story of two young girls in New York City who have remained virgins up till their time of preparing to go to college. One, Dakota Fanning, comes from a professional class family, the father, Clark Gregg, a doctor and the mother, Ellen Barkin, a psychologist. The house is run very strictly but goes into turmoil when the daughter discovers her father having an affair. There is great contrast with the home of the other girl, Elizabeth Olsen, with a very cheery spirit, a sometimes raucous father played by Richard Dreyfuss, with a strong mother who keeps in the background, Demi Moore.
The girls dare themselves to go swimming, naked, at Brighton Beach, and encounter a young men who sells ice creams but who is a photographer, Boyd Holbrook. One of the girls becomes infatuated with him, while the other seems to have some disdain but encounters him and falls in love, having an affair, which she does not communicate to her friend. It is inevitable that there will be hurt, betrayal, recriminations.
Of interest, the boss of the New York Ferry where the Dakota Fanning character works, is played by Peter Sarsgaard and, Naomi Foner’s son-in-law since he is married to Maggie Gyllenhaal.
This is a good and sensitive role for Dakota Fanning, and Elizabeth Olsen, facial features-wise, could easily play Maggie Gyllenhaall’s sister in a film.
1. In New York story, the city, the suburbs, the ferry, the apartments, Brighton Beach? New York atmosphere?
2. The title, the focus on Lilly and Gerry? A moral perspective, judgement?
3. The opening, the girls and their bikes, the beach, the dare to go naked into the sea, people watching, the boys coming to the water, the girls saying they were Romanian?
4. The summer holiday, the plains to go to college? Life in the home, Lilly, the young sisters, the stern mother, psychiatrist, tense, controlling? The father, the doctor, Lilly finding him with the girl in the office, the dismay? The contrast with Gerry’s house, noise, the children, the boisterous father, the response of the mother? Lilly enjoying Gerry’s house?
5. At the beach, the ice cream, the encounter with David, Gerry flirting, Liliy’ disdain, his taking the photo, on the poles? Gerry contacting him? His seeing Lilly, following her?
6. The girls, the impact of their families, the issue of sex and virginity, seeing virginity as a barrier to be overcome?
7. David, the encounters with Lilly the attraction, his apartment, his photography? His kiss, her resistance, their affair? The passion? The effect on Lilly? Her being unable to tell Gerry?
8. The visits to the houses? The barbecue and Gerry’s father? The suddenness of his death? Gerry’s reaction, emotionally? Lilly getting David to visit her, her advances, her telling Lilly about the sexual encounter? The effect on Lilly, hostility towards David?
9. The situation, Lilly wanting her father to come back, talking with him, his not being willing? The reaction with her mother? Taking it hard and acting severely? Leaving the house, leaving the room tidy? Seeing her father, his return, upset because she had asked him many times, his saying that her mother had asked this time? The parents wishing Lilly well?
10. Lilly on the ferry, guide? The friendship of the manager, his approach and Lilly leaving? Her return and his saying goodbye?
11. David, his interactions with the two girls, Lilly severe, the decision to go to Paris? The farewell, Lilly going, hiss telling the truth? Gerry seeing Littly, upset?
12. Gerry coming to farewell, the embrace between the two, audiences wondering about the future, David and his return from Europe a relationship with Lilly or not? The continuing friendship with Gerry?
