User Reviews

The Girl follows the life of Hannah Boyle, who enters the movie as a child, desperate to find help for her ailing mother. She runs into a local horseman, Ned, who is luckily kind enough to help. The movie follows her to the doorstep of the wealthy Thorntons, where Hannah's mother informs the man of the house that he has a bastard child. In front of his stiff-faced wife, mind. She then leaves little Hannah with the Thorntons, goes out to the back, and dies. So begins Hannah's tale of woe.

The first thirty minutes or so of the movie show some of the most blatant, honest cruelty that I have ever seen. Furious, hurt, and bitter at her husband's cavalier adultery, Anne Thornton takes her anger, frustration, and humiliation out on Hannah, labeling her "the girl", forcing her to work, and, eventually, thrashing her with a horsewhip so hard the child races over to the home of Ned and his grandfather, longing for comfort. Mr. Thornton puts a ready stop to this, and sends Hannah off to be "educated", and there endeth Young Hannah.

Seven years later, we meet older Hannah. Unlike the little tomboy we were first introduced to, this one is proper, "ladylike", delicate, and mild mannered. The perfect little lady. She still is hardly greeted with kindness from Anne, or from Anne's younger daughter Betsy (a kid with her head held so high she nearly trips over her shoes); but her father, half-sister Margaret, and half-brother John are all welcoming. In John, unfortunately, Hannah has a bit of a problem. She spends quite a while lusting after him, seemingly oblivious to the fact that a) they're family, and b) he doesn't seem to have any interest in her. Which causes her to bawl her heart out. And from there, the movie changes it's tone.

Hannah, is, in a sense, not an impressive character. She represents the female stereotype of that era, and it's painful to watch. The contrast to Hannah, however, is Ned (Jonathan Cake looking more broody, Irish, and bloody gorgeous than any man should have a right to.) Hard-spoken, rough, with an obvious shine for Hannah (heaven knows why), and a way of being cocky without losing his appeal, Ned creates the movie. Referring to Anne as "Lady Muck", excusing Mr. Thornton for fathering a bastard ("It's nature"), drinking, womanizing, and tending to his beloved horses, Ned is the Irish country that the Northumberland setting needs. That Hannah wastes her time fawning over her brother and pining away for a happy existence, while Ned all the while serves as her therapy, is more than a little trying. Ned too appears fed up with it; he tells her to shut up more times than anyone else does, and I love him all the more for it.

Hannah's life, of course, is bound to get worse. Her father dies (interestingly through an affair he was having), she is married off to a rather pig-like butcher, who is kind but stupid, and she realizes what the audience has known all along, namely that Ned is a) in love with her, and b) a sex god whom she should be worshiping. Unfortunately, by the time she realizes this, she's already a married woman, living a miserable existence. So she does the obvious : engage in an affair.

From here on, the movie is subject to view point. Speaking as a hardly religious person who judges each circumstance differently, I had no problem with the adultery. It had mainly to do with the times; in modern day, she could have divorced him without worry. Such things were not allowed for women back then, however; it's not as though she has much of an option. It is interesting to note, however, that both she and her father were stuck in loveless marriages; both followed their hearts elsewhere. One pays the ultimate price; the other suffers a bit (Ned more than she, and for the record, if I were him, loving a woman who got my finger chopped off in a bear trap and caused me to briefly go into a coma, really wouldn't fit into my priorities), but eventually gains happiness.

I was also struck by the slight connection to another movie; Jane Campion's The Piano. Women find love away from their husband's, and everyone's true nature is revealed. The woman discovers her freedom and sexuality; the lover reveals that he is not a hard person, but rather a loving, gentle one; and the husband reveals his dark side. In the case of of both, the woman briefly pays for the husband's anger; in the case of our movie, the lover briefly pays as well. What moral is to be learned? I suppose that everyone has a hidden quality within them.

The person who suffers most, however, is Ned. Suffering his way first through love of a woman who ignores him, then through love of a woman who is married to a man who doesn't quite treat her right, he bears a burden far more severe than hers. Perhaps Hannah has a right to be as dependent as she is, and perhaps her "trouble" is not all her fault, but one can't help but be annoyed that a rather pointless person receives undying devotion from someone who deserves better. This moral? Pretty, uneducated women always get the men. Though she does briefly redeem herself when she talks back to her husband's over-controlling mother, and takes it upon herself to manage the house.

Overall, a decent movie; the Brits tend to make them better than anyone else. And worth watching for Cake, who has a considerable amount of talent in addition to god-like looks. Flynn's good too, being as this was her first movie, and she couldn't help the script. Though you ought to take the opportunity to see it now; it's pretty rare.

May contain spoilers!!!!!!!

While this is a well done production, and it does follow the book word for word at times, and Jonathan Cake is absolutely gorgeous as well as a great actor, I highly recommend reading the book itself. In the book, Hannah's predicament and decisions are much more understandable, and the reader/viewer is much more sympathetic to her struggles than in the movie.

This is due to the some basic things that were not considered enough in the movie, or just left out (like the existence of the second brother, Robert, who was a great character): mood, time and seasonal factors. The background. WHEN things happened, and in WHAT season and weather were all critical to setting the mood....

BTW, Mark Benton as Fred Loam is just WONDERFUL. He generates such caring and frustration, and creates a very three-dimensional character that your heart just breaks for him. He does Fred so well that the way the writers play Hannah it gets you annoyed at her for hurting him.....while the script should not have let that happen to Hannah, it sure gives credit to Mark Benton for doing Fred so well!

Very worth watching for the period and the acting.

Peasant woman and daughter Hannah are squatting in a shed in the woods bump into kindly neighbor Ned and his grandad. He takes them to a nearby estate where mom tells lord of the manor the girl is his. He steps up and brings her into his home. Rarely is there a protagonist as unlikable as Hannah. She's selfish and spoilt, having no appreciation for the life provided by Thornton.

When old enough she is sent away to finishing school. Having learnt no skills or manners of any type, Hannah returns home apparently with no plans to contribute in any way but continues to enjoy the family's home and money. She refuses a good marriage, bringing dishonour to the family. Thornton is set up and meets an unfortunate end so Hannah is at the mercy of wife Anne, Thornton's frigid wench of a widow. When confronted with the reality that she can't freeload forever she agrees to marry the fat doltish butcher.

Disrespectful, cold and rude to hubby and MIL,and treated appropriately for such behaviour, she whines and complains to long suffering friend Ned who is inexplicably in love with her. Why he loves her is a mystery, as she has done naught but use him to dump her problems on when her impertinence gets her into a bind. But suddenly she loves him too. Not hard to figure out where things go from here.

How Ned can want to be with her after the bear trap incident (which evidently caused paralysis) and the encounter with her her simpleton hubby is perplexing.

The costumes and sets are sufficient but nothing memorable, acting is mediocre but little could be done with such a dreadful script.