Deeply disturbing content not worth enduring for minor dramatic payoff

Rating: 4/10 (18 April 2010)

'Girl' exposes us to brutal behaviors and images, serving up a revolting stew of behaviors (sexual, political, religious/ethnic violence and just plain sadism) in the service of a simple, improbable love story between an avenging Goth girl and a crusading journalist with writer's block, organized in the form of a whodunnit. The book was probably great. The movie is grisly. The actress at the center gives a game performance, but the movie never earns the right to display its endless disturbing examples of destructive human behavior by illuminating their origins or consequences in any discernible way. So it becomes, unfortunately, a kind of soft-core snuff film disguised as a suspense drama.