Miller's Girl (2024)

By: Mike Ward on Thursday, February 01

R Running Time: 93 mins

SHOULD I SEE IT?

YES

  • Whether you like it or hate it, Miller’s Girl will have you wanting to talk about it with someone (anyone…) once it fades to black.

  • Jenna Ortega fans…unite! Miller’s Girl gives Ortega a leading role far different than what you have seen in Scream or “Wednesday.”

  • The film has a great look - a Southern Gothic cloud hangs over much of the proceedings.

NO

  • Why does this movie exist? What were we aiming for here? Because I truly have no actual idea.

  • Increasingly outrageous the longer it goes, Miller’s Girl is bordering on “so bad it’s good” territory. Yet, it plays everything so seriously, you can’t really have fun with the movie in that way.

  • An absolute mess. The ideas never come together. And an adult/child potential grooming/seduction story has such a fine line to walk, you wonder where this thing got lost along the way.


OUR REVIEW

One of the most confounding movies you will (or likely will not) see this year is Miller’s Girl, a Lolita-esque romp about a male high school literature teacher (Martin Freeman) and his female student (Jenna Ortega), a bookish coquette who captivates him with every word, phrase, and movement. Writer/director Jade Halley Bartlett’s debut feature seems to want to balance sass and sarcasm with statement and sophistication. Instead, we just get a banal story that turns silly and cruel.

For teacher Jonathan Miller, his efforts at becoming an author have led to a severe lack of attention and even less in terms of sales. So, I suppose, we should initially forgive him (maybe?) when he is taken aback as new student Cairo (Ortega) recites lines from his book back to him. She also loves Henry Miller (what high school teen doesn’t?!) and selects the novelist, known for his sexually explicit and provocative writing style, as the author she chooses to emulate for an upcoming essay assignment. 

Initially, Jonathan finds little opposition to her author request and they soon begin hanging out and showing up at the same places. And yes…rather immediately, Miller’s Girl feels gross and icky. Not in a suspenseful way mind you, but in that “please don’t do what I think you are going to do” kind of way.

Elsewhere, Jonathan’s teaching colleague and best friend Boris (Bashir Salahuddin) has developed a weirdly, probably inappropriate text and chat connection with Cairo’s classmate and best friend, Winnie (Gideon Adlon). Is Jonathan jealous of Boris and Winnie? Is he truly becoming smitten with Cairo, who speaks with an encyclopedia-like (or is that Wikipedia-like) knowledge of pretty much everything?

Miller’s Girl flirts like it wants to be dangerous. However, increasingly the film is devoid of logic and reason, and just turns into a showcase for Ortega to remind us that she, and Freeman for that matter, are far too talented to be trudging around in dreck like this. Bartlett seems to be wanting to make a statement around #MeToo and the ease with which men exploit a power dynamic for selfish and often carnal pursuits. Perhaps recognizing that an on-the-nose #MeToo movie is not quite the way to go, Bartlett decides to have Cairo flip the tables a bit on Jonathan, establish dominance over Winnie, and become something completely unruly. 

Cool. Except we don’t buy any of this. Jonathan’s alcoholic wife, Beatrice (Dagmara Dominczyk), cuts him harsh and to the quick on his decisions, his failure as an author, and pretty much everything else. And still, there is no justification for Jonathan’s apparent feelings for Cairo. So, I ask again, what are we aiming for here exactly? 

As the screenplay unravels completely off its spool, Miller’s Girl feels lost, rudderless, like everyone is acting in a completely different movie. There is a Southern Gothic look and feel to the film which proves inviting, and Bartlett has a talented ensemble at her disposal we want to see find a way to succeed with all of this nonsense.

Ultimately though, Miller’s Girl is a book with no direction and a story without an identifiable purpose. This muddled mix of message and provocative titillation never finds a voice. By the end, we simply want the time back we spent thumbing through this story’s poorly worded pages.

CAST & CREW

Starring: Martin Freeman, Jenna Ortega, Bashir Salahuddin, Gideon Adlon, Dagmara Dominczyk, Christine Adams

Director: Jade Halley Bartlett
Written by: Jade Halley Bartlett
Release Date: January 26, 2024
Lionsgate