BAD GIRL
Australia, 2016, 87 minutes, Colour.
Sara West, Samara Weaving, Benjamin Winspear, Felicity Price, Rebecca Massey.
Directed by Fin Edquist.
In many ways, despite the setting in the present, this is something of an old-fashioned melodrama, a drama about a psychotic character and the havoc that she can wreak.
Bad Girl was filmed in Western Australia, the countryside and a small town with the prospect of wealthy homebuyers attracted by modern architecture to move out of the city to live in comfort. At the opening of the film, we see the Anderson’s, Peter and Michelle(Benjamiin Winspear and Felicity Price), with their rebellious daughter, Amy (Sara West), sitting in the back of the car, sullen, only 17 but having had trouble with the police and institutions. The parents hope that she will be rehabilitated and bond with them as they move to the modern house that Peter has designed. Actually, things are not all that easy and he is becoming dependent on visitors from China to purchase his units.
Some of the neighbours a friendly, and a young girl, Chloe (Samara Weaving), turns up offering to clean the house as she says she is doing for other homes around the town. She is a very pretty girl but Peter Anderson is wary though Michelle reaches out to her.
A good part of the film shows the bonding between Amy and Chloe, especially as Amy intends to run away from home but those who are going with her fail to show up and a drunken Amy walks on the local bridge railings in the middle of the night, only to be rescued by Chloe. Chloe does do the jobs in the house, has long talks with Amy, especially after Amy runs away again and has commandeered the car owned by two young men and drives it recklessly. Amy reveals that she has been adopted, Peter and Michelle having adopted out their baby when they were studying and were too young to keep it. Chloe’s idea is that Amy should go on to a website and the people to her natural parents to make contact – which they seem to do.
Things are difficult at home, Amy and Chloe become firm friends, especially with a sexual attraction.
Review should probably end here, not taking the plot developments any further but leaving them to the audience as the details become more and more complicated, Chloe becoming more and more part of the household, seeming to become indispensable to Peter and Michelle while Amy seems to be more and more rebellious, disappearing from the house.
The plot becomes more melodramatic torch the end, with touches of blood and violence, keeping the audience fairly alert, some suspense and twists, with a happy ending come thing coming as something of a relief!
Not bad of its kind.
1. An Australian thriller? Psychotic character? Threats and menace? Violence?
2. The title, with reference to Amy? The discovery that Chloe was the really evil girl?
3. Western Australia locations, the roads, the country town, the modern house architecture? The countryside, the hills, river? The musical score?
4. The introduction to Amy, age, sullen, the nose ring, being in institutions, the police? The revelation that she was adopted? Her relationship with Peter and Michelle? The drive to the house, the promising to settle in, the behaviour at the meal, her room? The phone calls and her plan to run away? In the night, leaving, waiting at the bus stop, the phone call to the friends, their not coming, her drinking, the drugs, walking on the bridge, saved by Chloe?
5. Peter and Michelle, the past, the adoption of their baby, still having the images from the scan? Their adopting Amy? Difficulties with her? Peter, the architect, the design of the house? The difficulties, the people coming from China, hosting then?
6. Chloe, the assumption that she was the daughter of the farmers? Her offering to clean, saying she cleaned all houses? Her saving Amy? Ingratiating herself with Peter and Michelle? Her work in the house?
7. Amy, running away, Chloe pursuing, Amy stealing the car, Chloe and the risks, the mad driving? The neighbouring boys and the initial encounter at the pool, the later coming to the house, complaint about the car, later finding Amy on the road and kicking her? Chloe bringing her home?
8. The discussion about adoption, Chloe suggesting going online, composing the document, the reply, the photo, going to the diner, hoping to meet the parents, their not turning
up? Allegedly at the motel, the girls going to the room, no one there, the sexual attraction?
9. Chloe and her claiming that she was the adopted child, the return, no relations? The emotional clinging to them?
10. Amy and the visit of the detective? Chloe has Jessica Cooper? Amy and her suspicions? The parent visiting the Buchanan farm and seeing the real Chloe?
11. Peter and Michelle going to the city, to meet the clients? Amy feigning sickness, trying to find out about her birth parents? Chloe taking her to the caravan, the interactions, Chloe putting Amy in the car, the exhaust and locking the car?
12. Chloe and her treatment of the house, her anger, making it as Amy’s destructiveness? The visit of the clients?
13. Amy, getting out of the car, in the bush, evading Chloe? On the road, being kicked, her phone call to the detective, the detective in the car, picking her up, going to the house?
14. Chloe, mad, calling Michelle mum, claiming to be the adopted child? Peter and his suspicions? Chloe in the house, taking them to the caravan, concocting her story about Amy? The police? The challenge to Peter and Michelle and their thinking about Amy?
15. Amy and the return, the detective being Jessica’s mother, trying to take her away, her love for her, Chloe killing her?
16. The siege in the house, taking refuge in the bedroom, Chloe stabbing Peter? Amy and the cat and mouse encounter with Chloe? The swimming pool, the stabbing? Chloe’s
death?
17. The family getting out of the house, going to the hospital – and the future?
