The Girl

PG-13

2012

1 hr. 35 min.

Drama

List

53%

19 Reviews

Tomatometer

43%

250+ Ratings

Audience Score

A Texan mother loses her child to foster care and she starts to smuggle Mexicans across the border to make money.

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Audience Member

Great job by Cornish. First time I've seen her in a lead, she is a wonderful actress. Saw her on Craig Ferguson a few times, so I know she's Austrailian. She did a great job with the American accent and persona, as well as a woman in dire straights financially who sets her heart and solid ethical choices above the monetary. All Americans should watch this, for few know the truth about illegal immigration. My wife is from Colombia and her sister lives in Mexico. She has a friend who came across and was raped seven times. Everyone who comes across has to pay the cartel, so American policies or lack of application of law encourages the rape, murder, sex and drug trafficking that happens all the time. We do a great injustice to encourage the death and abuse of these desperate and poor people. Great film bringing awareness to the ignorant, spoiled Americans.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/03/23

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Audience Member

This is a really wonderful movie. No car chases, drugs, gratuitous sex, or spaceships. Just a wonderful story: beautifully written, acted, and filmed!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/20/23

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darren h

Not bad. But not great either. If this was a made for tv movie I would have rated it slightly higher.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

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Audience Member

a good enough role with enough dramatic weight for Abbie Cornish the film also deals with illegal immigrants coming into the US from Mexico and Ashley is caught in the middle of the epidemic learning that her father smuggles in people across the border in order to keep her son from being taken away she decides to transport a few of her own, unfortunately she's only left with a little Mexican girl whom has lost her mother the girl has Ashley realize that she really needs to start being a good enough mother to her own child and you can feel that wonderful bond that unexpectedly grows between them even the citizens of Mexico have it rough as well as in America that many don't realize a heavy enough film

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/22/23

Full Review

walter m

In "The Girl," Ashley(Abbie Cornish) has problems that extend just beyond her low paying job. Namely her DUI conviction that resulted in her son being put into foster care. So, she welcomes the opportunity to bond with her father(Will Patton) at his home in Mexico. After finding out what he does for money, namely smuggling people across the border in his truck, she gets some ideas of her own... Abbie Cornish deserves better than this. In the past she has shown much more promise and talent than here with "The Girl" where her character is mostly defined by a wonky Texas accent.(Will Patton is great, by the way.) At the same time, that's one of this sentimental and mawkish movie's lesser flaws, where the central point seems to be to prove that Ashley is really not such a terrible person after all. This is in a world where migrants have bigger problems than clueless white people.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I really liked this movie. If you are looking for an action-packed thriller, look somewhere else, though. This is a slower paced film about a flawed woman trying to correct her actions. The movie contrasts the sensibility and strength of a young Mexican girl, with the selfishness of the American woman. The very poor Mexican family lives with dignity, while she lives in squalor. This was a good, heartfelt film. Abbie Cornish turned in a lovely performance as always, and the little girl in this was adorable.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/07/23

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David Riker

Director

Abbie Cornish

Ashley

Will Patton

Tommy

Luci Christian

Sally

Giovanna Zacarías

Enriqueta

Raúl Castillo

Agent

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Marjorie Baumgarten

Austin Chronicle

A sentimental shift in the last reel of the film seems artificially designed to wrap up the story and demonstrate that a life lesson has been learned. It's when it's at its most contemplative that The Girl is at its best.

Rated: 2.5/5

Apr 5, 2013

Full Review

Brian Tallerico

HollywoodChicago.com

There's a heartfelt tenderness for this troubled character on Riker & Cornish's part but it comes at the expense of realism or any serious answers to the questions raised by the film.

Rated: 3.0/5.0

Mar 21, 2013

Full Review

Scott Tobias

AV Club

It's unfortunate that Riker's strong central character and evocative location work get undermined, at every turn, by a plot that not only springs zero surprises, but reduces the terror and loss of Cornish's charges to mere life lessons for her.

Rated: C+

Mar 7, 2013

Full Review

Charles Ealy

Austin American-Statesman

[Cornish] plays Ashley with a mix of guilt and determination. And the precocious Hernandez brings an equally stubborn quality to Rosa.

Rated: B

Apr 4, 2013

Full Review

Ethan Alter

Television Without Pity

The Girl is still more "good for you" than "good," but at least it supplements its feature-length lecture with a pair of good performances and a decent payoff.

Mar 8, 2013

Full Review

Brian Orndorf

Blu-ray.com

It's a spare film, but deeply felt and convincing, while bringing Cornish into a whole new light as an actress.

Rated: B

Mar 8, 2013

Full Review

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Synopsis

A Texan mother loses her child to foster care and she starts to smuggle Mexicans across the border to make money.

Director: David Riker
Executive Producer: Philipp Engelhorn, Nick Quested
Screenwriter: David Riker
Production Co: Journeyman Pictures
Rating: PG-13 (Thematic Material|Smoking|Language|Violence/Disturbing Images)
Genre: Drama
Original Language: Spanish
Release Date (Streaming): Dec 30, 2013
Box Office (Gross USA): $34.2K

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