Very Good Girls

Very Good Girls is Elizabeth Olsen's seventh film, and premiered at Sundance 2013.

## Plot Summary

Two New York City girls make a pact to lose their virginity during their first summer out of high school. When they both fall for the same street artist, the friends find their connection tested for the first time.

## Synopsis

Best friends Lilly and Gerri spend their last summer in New York together. At Brighton Beach, they muse about swimming nude before Gerri suddenly takes off her shirt and runs into the water, followed by Lilly. On their way back home, they meet David, a guy selling ice cream. After an awkward conversation, David takes a picture of Lilly from the back. Upon coming back home, Lilly sees her father kissing another woman in the office. She takes comfort in spending the evening with Gerri's family, who are loud and open in contrast to Lilly's stony mother and absent father. The girls talk and vow to lose their virginity before leaving for college.

As Lilly walks to work as a boat tour guide in Manhattan, David watches from a distance. He shows interest in her which she doesn't tell Gerri about, while Gerri exhibits an affection for him despite the lack of reciprocation, and despite neither girl knowing him well. David asks Lilly out, and she agrees.

Lilly's mother learns about her father's affair and asks him to leave, against Lilly's wishes. She begins to hang out with David and they kiss. Gerri invites David to an open mic night where she sings a song she wrote for him, while out of her sight, David takes Lilly's hand and holds it under the table.

Lilly's boss flirts with her, offering lucrative night shifts with an obvious implication. As she's walking home, Lilly sees David waiting outside her house; they kiss and have sex in the garage. The next morning Lilly runs into her father who apologizes for the affair and asks her to have dinner with him, which she declines. Afterward, David sneaks in through the bathroom window. They shower together before spending the day flocking around the city. They arrive at a basketball court where a stylishly dressed man strips to his underwear and dances ballet liberatingly. The kids join him while the video pans out in a bird's eye view.

Later in the evening, Lilly learns that Gerri's father died after suddenly collapsing in the subway. She leaves David to be with a despairing Gerri. Sharing Gerri's grief encourages Lilly to ask her mother to forgive her father. Gerri confides in Lilly that she can't stop thinking about David. Guiltily, Lilly rejects David's attempts to meet again. He confronts her and she rebuffs him, asking him to meet up with Gerri, but is dismayed when David complies. He comforts Gerri and they kiss in her backyard garden, which Lilly sees.

At her father's memorial service, Gerri tells Lilly that she lost her virginity to David, which prompts Lilly to go see her boss and agree to his advances. They kiss in the tour boat, but then Lilly changes her mind. However, when she confronts David about having sex with Gerri and he does not respond, she lies and tells him she had sex with her boss. The next day, Lilly finds her parents cooking in the kitchen and is surprised that her mother has forgiven her father. David shows up and claims he didn't sleep with Gerri, and Lilly storms off.

Time passes before Gerri tells Lilly that David is leaving for Paris, and Lilly finds him, admitting to him that she didn't sleep with her boss. Angry, David warns her to stop manipulating other people's feelings but still kisses her goodbye before leaving in a cab. As Lilly walks away, Gerri confronts her furiously, having followed her overheard their conversation.

Lilly makes amends with her father and he advises her to ask Gerri for forgiveness, saying people will always surprise you, but she does not take his advice. The morning before Lilly leaves for college, Gerri comes over with a photograph of Lilly that David took of her dancing on the basketball court, saying it was his way of making sure the photo got to her before she left. Lilly tells her it is his way of making sure the girls saw each other before she left. Gerri reveals she never actually had sex with David, she asked him to but he told her he was already in love with someone else. The two girls make up and take off their clothes to dance in the sprinklers.

## Cast

* Dakota fanning as Lilly
* Elizabeth Olsen as Gerri
* Sterling Jones as Beach Boy
* Lenny Platt as Beach Boy
* Boyd Holbrook as David
* Ellen Barkin as Norma
* Kiernan Shipka as Eleanor
* Clare Foley as Phoebe
* Roslyn Curry as Joy
* Clark Gregg as Edward
* Demi Moore as Kate
* Richard Dreyfuss as Danny
* Owen Campbell as Karl
* Peter Sarsgaard as Fitzsimmons
* Brandin Steffesen as Dancer
* James Jenner as Field Family Friend