The Girl
"DIA" Productions GmbH & Co. KG | Release Date: December 14, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
54
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 12 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
6
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
NPRJeannette CatsoulisDec 13, 2012
Written and directed by David Riker, who built his 1998 drama "La Ciudad" around immigrants in New York City, The Girl is stingy with backstory but rich with visual clues. Read full review
70
Village VoiceChris PackhamDec 18, 2012
Hernandez is soulful and affecting, though, and Cornish embodies Ashley's self-centered character with nuance and subtlety. Read full review
67
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezDec 18, 2012
Anyone who finds this conclusion a humanistic or socially reprehensible dealbreaker can hardly be faulted. Before these questionable issues come to a head and then falter in the finale, there is a lot of value in The Girl. Read full review
63
ObserverRex ReedMar 6, 2013
The Girl sounds like a real mess. It isn’t. It’s just a slow, well-made human interest story on a very small scale, ultimately touching but as inconsequential as a slice of pineapple at a Hawaiian luau. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineElise NakhnikianDec 9, 2012
Uses the perils of immigrating to this country without papers as a backdrop for a poor white American woman's bumpy path to enlightenment. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyDec 13, 2012
There are moving moments as Cornish channels the slow self-enlightenment necessary for Ashley's character arc. And the actress is particularly good in the scenes with the promising young Hernandez. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierDec 13, 2012
Writer-director David Riker's film is tough going, but worth it. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasMar 6, 2013
Writer-director David Riker, who previously made the accomplished 1998 Paisan homage The City (La Ciudad), has a great eye for detail: He sketches the narrow boundaries of Cornish’s sad life in Austin expertly while bringing a village square across the border to vivid life. He also gets another fine performance out of Cornish. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenApr 3, 2013
In The Girl, writer/director David Riker returns to many of the same themes he pursued in his award-winning 1998 film "La Ciudad," which told the stories of four Hispanic immigrants living in New York City. Immigration is still very much on Riker’s mind, although he approaches it from a very different perspective this time. Read full review
50
The New York TimesManohla DargisDec 13, 2012
What at first came across as a tale of dawning conscience increasingly starts to feel rigged. Read full review
40
Time OutDavid FearMar 6, 2013
In all aspects, The Girl can’t help it — this is headline-torn cinema du tearjerking at its most generic. Read full review
25
New York PostKyle SmithDec 14, 2012
If the poor really interested such filmmakers, these movies would have something to offer other than lugubriousness masquerading as seriousness, and clichés presented as hard truths. Read full review
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