Catching up on 2011 - Henry Saw: Cracks

This was made in 2009 but only reached theaters earlier this year. I can understand why no one rushed to get this one out there...


Which is not to say that Cracks is a bad movie. It just fails to resonate and leaves one with the unsatisfying feeling that it was just a few rewrites away from being a really intriguing picture. Despite solid efforts from the cast, and an eerie tone that director Jordan Scott (daughter of Ridley) layers over the entire film, Cracks does not quite come together as a complete movie.

"Set in a strict elite boarding school in the 1930s, the story centers on a clique of girls who idolize their enigmatic swimming instructor, Miss G (Eva Green). When a beautiful Spanish girl named Fiamma Coronna (Valverde) arrives at the school, Miss G's focus is shifted away from the other girls. Di Radfield (Juno Temple) has a crush on Miss G, and is the firm favorite and ringleader of her group. It becomes a triangle: Miss G gets increasingly obsessed with Fiamma, Fiamma is disturbed by Miss G and also openly disgusted by the teacher's hypocrisies and deceptions, and Di is terribly jealous and makes Fiamma's life hell." (Via Wikipedia)



The two films one has to think of when watching Cracks are Heavenly Creatures and Picnic at Hanging Rock. Unfortunately, Jordan Scott's debut feature film lacks the intense passion of the former and the beguiling mystery of the latter. Cracks teases the audience into believing it is telling a nuanced story of deceit and jealousy but sadly unravels into pure melodrama that borders on farcical.

The fault does not lie with the actors. Eva Green is an absolutely captivating screen presence. Not only is she beautiful, but few actresses are as capable of playing a believably intelligent and seductive character as she is. We understand why all her students are so infatuated with her, beyond her inherent sexiness, and Green is even able to sell the sillier aspects of her character as the film progresses. Juno Temple is also effective as the ring leader of her circle of friends. Naive, but trying to act world weary, Temple has a history of playing these kind of characters (Atonement) but only because it is something she does quite well. The rest of the cast fills their roles suitably though Maria Valverde is perhaps slightly out of her league playing the girl that the whole film ends up revolving around.

I wanted to like this movie much more than I did. There just wasn't enough drama to be found in any of the subplots that Scott sets up in the first two-thirds, and then the grim final third ends up feeling awkward and forced rather than creepy or tragic. In the end, Cracks is not a film I can fully recommend. It's interesting, and the pieces are all there for a superior movie, but it never fully comes together.

Grade: C

Best Scene: When Fiamma shows us that Miss G may not have led the adventurous life she would have her girls believe...