The Girl in the River review – forensic psychologist police procedural thriller plays like noir parody
Ralph Macchio and Tiffany Haddish feature in a ropey and implausible manhunt thriller as cops search for the missing twin of a murdered teenager This small-town police thriller sets its stall out intriguingly, with a murder that seems actively begging to be solved. The perp chose to dump his victim – the 14-year-old daughter of a local political bigwig – into a part of the Mississippi River where she was likely to…
Key points
- The Girl in the River is a small-town police thriller directed by Brando Benetton.
- It follows detective Alan Kramer and forensic psychologist Amelia Pembrock hunting a killer.
- The review calls the film a ropey and implausible manhunt with parody noir elements.
The Girl in the River is a small-town police thriller directed by Brando Benetton in his debut feature. It begins with the murder of a 14-year-old girl, the daughter of a local political bigwig, whose body was dumped into the Mississippi River from a highly visible bridge.
Veteran detective Alan Kramer, played by Devon Sawa, and rookie forensic psychologist Amelia Pembrock, played by Maggie Grace, investigate the case. A colleague notes that the scene sends a message rather than being a clean-up.
What the review says
The review states that the film fails to capitalise on the misdirection of its open-goal crime scene. Instead of prying open community secrets, it offers a ropey and implausible manhunt as the pair race to find the girl's missing twin.
The detectives focus on local butcher Boris, played by Darron Dunbar, who has a sex-pest rap sheet and lives with his mother. Kramer challenges Pembrock for being unbothered by the lack of prosecutable evidence.
This isn’t a clean-up. It’s a message.
— a colleague
Cast and shortcomings
The review describes the film as parody noir, cliche-strewn and far less careful. It cites the obsessive desk jockey, the boozy trauma-harbouring vet, Tiffany Haddish's angry black captain and Ralph Macchio's affable town coroner.
It adds that the local media willingly share damning evidence and a staged mutiny fires up the detectives when leads run out. Grace and Sawa are said to half-ballast the dubious sleuthing, and Benetton keeps the film moving fast.
The review concludes that Kramer's capstone speech about universal corruption is, like the victim, dead in the water.
