There should be a term for a film that tries so hard to be reminiscent of many different other things that it ends up not finding a voice of its own. I'm sure there is and I would use that term to describe God Help The Girl if I knew what it was. This is a film that seems to have aspirations of being similar to a Wes Anderson film, a John Carney film, a Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musical and a Humphrey Bogart-Ingrid Bergman love story, just to name a few. This is not to say this is a particularly bad film. It's not like it tries to rip off any of these films. It obviously has respect for all these films and pays homage to them but also proves there is such a thing as too much homage. There is some genuinely good stuff within the film but by the time the film hit 90 minutes when it could have wrapped up in 80, my patience was wearing extremely thin.
Written and directed by Stuart Murdoch (of Belle & Sebastian,) the film follows Eve (Emily Browning,) an anorexic and troubled young woman who is living in a health clinic to get her back to a normal weight. Eve escapes from the clinic one night and into a club where James (Olly Alexander) is quitting his neglectful and unappreciative band. James and Eve make sure the other is alright at the club following James's fight with the band only to run into each other again. Soon, James discovers Eve has quite the set of pipes on her and they start a band. Brought into the band is a music student of James named Cassie (Hannah Murray.)
This film is very much a musical but there's not nearly enough of that. Whenever the songs are being performed, the film is bubbly and about as enjoyable as it can be. However, these songs are too far in between and the stuff without them too often feels like a chore to sit through. Browning and Murray are both terrific, showing two sides of a very troubled coin and making their characters work as foils for one another. The stand out here, however, is Alexander, who makes the character of James much more interesting and likable than is written. He brings a liveliness to the performance that boosts the film's entertainment value up quite significantly.
The problem is that the script too often makes these characters not do anything. Eve is dating a scummy guy (Pierre Boulanger) who is only using her for her body. The question then is why is she letting him do this? The audience never gets an answer or even a hint of one which makes that plot completely unnecessary. Meanwhile, James is desperately falling for Eve. The best song in the film even involves a fantasy that James has about Eve in the bathtub. James is not a particularly wimpy or shy fellow so why doesn't he just let her know his feelings? No answer there, either. Cassie too often feels like she's mostly just there to be a third band member. Her character isn't given much life or meaning beyond being a part of the band. Then come the last 30 minutes, which go on for way too long and eventually become mind numbing. By the time the film concluded, I could not care less what happens to any of these characters..I just wanted to leave the auditorium.
While I can not dismiss there is some enjoyable stuff here, God Help The Girl is mostly just a long slog through a wasteland of cinematic cliches. Murdoch has proven he has extreme talent via his work in Belle & Sebastian and no doubt could make a fascinating film one day. It's just a matter of him finding coherence and originality within the film.
(1 out of 5 Stars, The film is Not Rated)
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