It is one’s tragedy that will lead to another one’s awakening.
The indie film “The Girl” reflects a soul-searching journey of a woman named Ashley (played by Abbie Cornish), who lost her child to child protection services years ago. She places the blame on everyone for the loss of her child—the foster parents, the government, the court and even her work. And most of all, she blames her problem with the lack of money in order to get her child back.
With the lack of money, a dead end job and living in a trailer park, her father Tommy (played by Will Patton) surprises her with a visit and they both travel to Mexico. She soon learns that her father smuggles Mexicans across the border for great sums of cash.
In desperation for money and to win her son back, she takes her own operation to smuggle...
The indie film “The Girl” reflects a soul-searching journey of a woman named Ashley (played by Abbie Cornish), who lost her child to child protection services years ago. She places the blame on everyone for the loss of her child—the foster parents, the government, the court and even her work. And most of all, she blames her problem with the lack of money in order to get her child back.
With the lack of money, a dead end job and living in a trailer park, her father Tommy (played by Will Patton) surprises her with a visit and they both travel to Mexico. She soon learns that her father smuggles Mexicans across the border for great sums of cash.
In desperation for money and to win her son back, she takes her own operation to smuggle...
- 3/7/2013
- by Gig Patta
- LRMonline.com
With 3 new clips available ahead of its release, buzz is steadily building for "The Girl," the first feature in over a decade from NY based writer-director David Riker. Riker's previous work "The City (La Ciudad)," a quartet of neo-realist vignettes detailing the experiences of Latin American immigrants in New York, evoked a strong critical response and picked up a handful of awards on the indie festival circuit. "The Girl" returns to the subject of immigration and stars Abbie Cornish, who impressed in Jane Campion's sensuous 2009 John Keats biopic “Bright Star” and has since gone on to supporting roles in "Limitless," "Sucker Punch" and "Seven Psychopaths." Cornish plays a troubled single mother living hand-to-mouth in the fraught territory of the Texas-Mexico border. After accepting a job driving illegal immigrants across the border, she finds her fate entangled with that of a young Mexican girl. Riker has said he spent a...
- 3/6/2013
- by Kieran McMahon
- The Playlist
The emotion in the room was palpable as writer-director David Riker took the stage alongside producer Tania Zarak following the final Tff 2012 screening of their film, The Girl. As Riker explained, The Girl continues the conversation sparked in his first film, La Ciudad (The City), which explored the lives of Hispanic immigrants in New York City. Yet despite the evocative tone of La Ciudad, 'Q and As just like this one' illuminated a sobering reality: audiences 'were very moved, but spoke of [the migrant workers] as having nothing to do with them[selves]' - as though the characters' experiences were 'so far removed' from their own. Compelled to show the universality of their journeys, Riker went down to the Mexican-American border - admittedly harboring 'all sorts of false or incomplete' impressions - intent on demystifying America's idea that 'the villages these people leave are without hope. That the very fact that every night...
- 5/1/2012
- TribecaFilm.com
New York – After focusing on the hardships of undocumented Latino workers in New York City in his 1998 neo-realist drama La Ciudad (The City), writer-director David Riker returns to illegal immigration and the myth of the instantly attainable American Dream in The Girl, but this time as background to a more intimate, minor-key character portrait. Observed with a piercing eye for detail and a refined grasp of visual storytelling, the film’s integrity is somewhat compromised by its narrative ellipses and slight turn toward sentimentality at the end. But Abbie Cornish’s contained yet emotionally raw performance provides
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- 4/30/2012
- by David Rooney
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Have you ever heard of David Riker’s 1998 film The City? This half-film, half-social experiment mixed actual immigrants (their legal status is anyone’s guess) with professional actors to put forward a semi-authentic experience cloaked by a conventional storyline. Watching Entre Nos, written and directed by Gloria Le Morte and Paola Mendoza, who also stars as the lead Mariana, I could not shake the feeling that I’ve seen it all before, better executed and more resonant. Entre Nos is an intimate character study that never rises above simply showcasing the day-in-day-out struggle of a newly immigrated mother and her two children.
Arguably, that may be enough and the film does not hesitate to tug on the heartstrings as Mariana treks from Colombia to New York City with her two children, Andrea (Laura Montana) and Gabriel (Sebastian Villada), in tow. They are six and ten, respectively and their mother is...
Arguably, that may be enough and the film does not hesitate to tug on the heartstrings as Mariana treks from Colombia to New York City with her two children, Andrea (Laura Montana) and Gabriel (Sebastian Villada), in tow. They are six and ten, respectively and their mother is...
- 8/4/2010
- by Mark Zhuravsky
- JustPressPlay.net
Journeyman gets 'The Girl'
NEW YORK -- The production banner behind Maria Full of Grace and Half Nelson is prepping The Girl, a story about immigration and maternal bonding, with Emily Blunt in talks to star.
Paul Mezey's Journeyman Pictures will produce, while HBO Films is circling the project, with the possibility of the shingle financing and producing as it did with Maria.
David Riker has written the screenplay for Girl and is attached to direct. Riker penned the Sundance film The Sleep Dealer, which took home the dramatic screenwriting award; he also penned the episodic immigrant story La Ciudad.
Although the script for Girl is said to be essentially finished, the project likely won't shoot until after the writers strike, probably in the fall, sources said.
The movie focuses on a Texas woman (Blunt) who finds the young daughter of an illegal immigrant who has become separated from her mother. Saddled with a child she doesn't wish to care for, the woman then searches for the child's mother, a quest that takes her south of the border.
Paul Mezey's Journeyman Pictures will produce, while HBO Films is circling the project, with the possibility of the shingle financing and producing as it did with Maria.
David Riker has written the screenplay for Girl and is attached to direct. Riker penned the Sundance film The Sleep Dealer, which took home the dramatic screenwriting award; he also penned the episodic immigrant story La Ciudad.
Although the script for Girl is said to be essentially finished, the project likely won't shoot until after the writers strike, probably in the fall, sources said.
The movie focuses on a Texas woman (Blunt) who finds the young daughter of an illegal immigrant who has become separated from her mother. Saddled with a child she doesn't wish to care for, the woman then searches for the child's mother, a quest that takes her south of the border.
- 2/1/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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