I love this movie so much

You won't be disappointed!

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

I enjoyed this movie and the fact that it is split into chapters and all the characters tie together. Each chapter you learn a little more about them and it doesn't all make sense until the final and you get one of those "aha" moments and I liked that. I thought the ending was a little weird though, I thought it would have been more exciting, but it was just, OK well that's it then. Other than that I would say good watch. The characters are all interesting and you really get a feel for their lives in the short chapters, especially the wife and the sister, those two were very emotional. I really like the fact that you don't know what is going to happen at the end until it reaches the end, it is impossible to predict, unlike some other movies that are predictable.

Wow this was really a powerful film. I went into it not knowing what to expect. I came out completely touched and completely entertained. The film consists of a series of segments that tie together the central story about "The Dead Girl". Each segment's primary focus is on a particular female character and how circumstances have effected them. Each segment is dark and introspective. This movie is NOT a thriller and if you cant handle purposeful reflective pace. Some would call it "slow" but I never found the movie dragging at all even when minutes go by without a word of dialog. It was too tense and you were always trying to figure out how everything pieced together and the complex meanings and symbologies behind so much of it. Its a complex film and it doesn't go out of its way to inform you what everything means or how everything comes together. I liked that. It left me with a thousand questions but at the same time feeling completely fulfilled. Thats rare in my experience. The viewer should be left interested enough to wonder about the details but not left confused and angry because there are gaps. And this movie pulls that off perfectly.As good as the writing is for this film, the acting is flawless across the board. You have a series of segments where the "main character" is dead throughout most of it so there's never any primary focus for the audience throughout the film. Instead we are given one in each segment but because they (mostly) don't overlap segments you see all the actors fairly equally and it allows them all to shine. I truly cannot think of one character that I wasn't completely impressed with. Marcia Gay Harden was especially moving as the mother of The Dead Girl. She has a scene that I found so heartwrechingly well done that I could not contain my tears but I could not look away at the same time. Rose Byrne is also moving as The Sister. You can feel her torment like its painted on your skin when you watch her segment. And Kerry Washington was just terrific as well. All the acting was just stellar and honestly I cant remember a movie in my adult life where I actually came away noting that.If there's one drawback to the movie its that its at times unbearably depressing and dark and heartbreaking. You go from one troubled soul to the next without let up. And for me it ALMOST got to the point of being too much but Moncrieff pulled it out of a permanent depressive nose dive by weaving in hope and symbolism where there is only horror and darkness. She gives relief in the form of human connection in almost every vignette. So really a great film. Not sure how it went so under the radar or wasn't nominated for anything significant. I love that it forces us to wonder about the story behind what we are seeing on the screen. I love how it doesn't give us a standard story presented in a standard way with a standard wrap up ending. I love that its fully reflective and reflexive in so many ways. And its so deep. There's so much to pick up. I watched it several hours ago and Im ready to watch it again. I think thats the sign of a well done film.

I went ahead with "The Dead Girl" knowing little about the story, but knowing everyone involved with. Left myself to be taken by what it was about to be presented, following its surprises, trying to enjoy everything. Gathering and holding the pieces together revealed a little satisfying picture, I must say, whose biggest attractive was in the reunion of people like Toni Collette, James Franco, Marcia Gay Harden, Giovanni Ribisi, Rose Byrne, Mary Steenburgen, Bruce Davison, Brittany Murphy, Josh Brolin, Mary Beth Hurt, Kerry Washington, Piper Laurie and Nick Searcy. And if not them, what else then? "The Dead Girl" is a hyperlinked movie revolving missing persons, in this case a dead girl (Murphy) found by a poor woman (Collette), fact this that changes her life after meeting a strange (Ribisi) interested in the case. From that, the movie swindles between chapters offering us the many perspectives of people related with her death, in one way or the other, or only her disappearance depending on who's trying to find her. It's just about following those lives in a short period of time trying to figure what's next but most of it it's easily answered. One of the interesting connections made in the story relates to a young forensic (Byrne) who, along with her hopeful parents (Steenburgen and Davison), is searching for her missing sister and the recently found body could be of hers but it proves to be that it's not. It's from this point the film takes off by stating on how painful and difficult is the task of finding a missing person, specially when you're this close to the case, you care about the person and the only hope is to get some result from your searches, even if ulmitately a dead body. "The Dead Girl" works best only as a dramatic flick, often tiring in its suffocating slow pace and lacking of thrills to be a competent thriller. Mystery isn't so impactant or anything similar because it just answer to us what really happened but it never completes it to the characters. It just gives one turn in one ride, so the mother won't find about her daughter's destiny but she'll find some answers and one big surprise, just to give an example. As mentioned in the beginning this worths because of the cast included, most of them giving good performances, specially Mary Beth Hurt standing out as the killer's wife. Her segment is the most terrifying, and we feel a lot for her character from the moment her husband (Searcy) disappears, then people come after him and later she discovers the truth about him. Throughout the segments most of the time you don't buy the story because you're seeing the famous faces acting in it while in her segment it's feels real, she and Searcy are the characters (and it's strange because they're veteran actors with countless pictures but their lack of outstanding fame allows them to go deep in the performances, looking natural). Marcia Gay Harden's segment was also very good, she had powerful interactions with Kerry Washington. The saddest part of all was having to watch Piper Laurie doing a poor version of Carrie's mother again (but with Collette as daughter). Not only you get angry at her character and her abusive manners of treating her daughter but you feel even angrier at the people who cast her in this role. She already done that, why do it again? And it was a weak performance.Good movie, it might leave you thinking a lot of stuff for a bit but it's just another frame of mind. 6/10

I would have given this movie a 9 had it not been for the ending (or lack-there-of). The entire movie, except the ending, was great. The acting is some of the best I've seen in a while, and the script is excellent. The movie has this slowly unfolding story, with dark undertones, and doesn't rely on a cheesy soundtrack to creep you out, nor does it have room for over-acting. The whole story is building up to the climax... but it never comes! Where the climax should be- the movie just ends. The only complaint I have about this movie is indeed the ending. See- you have this story... told from 5 different points of view. The Stranger, the Sister, the Wife, the Mother, and The Dead Girl. The movie begins at the end, and then flashes back on all of these characters' personal story as it pertains to the murder of this girl. All of the stories stop at a certain point and simply move on to the next person's POV. This is to be expected in these sort of Quentin Tarantino types of story lines that start at the end, and flash back to the beginning. The thing is these types of story lines all end up at a certain point, and then the ending is usually explained as a whole, and all loose ends are tied up. This never happens in this story line, and it leaves you wandering.... why did they end the movie HERE? To me it made no sense. For this reason and this reason only, I gave it a 6 instead of a 9, because for me they left out the best part.