The Holy Girl
Director: Lucrecia Martel
Year Released: 2004
Rating: 0.5
Nonlinear prattle about a young girl and the two 'brief encounters' she has with a doctor staying at a hotel for a conference. The main story is so basic - older man attracted to young nymphet - it's like an embarrassingly simplified retelling of Lolita but most of the positive reviews I've been skimming through focus on the 'coded' messages and symbolism, which leads me to think this is an ideal picture for semiotics majors. I suppose I wasn't in the mood to decrypt and decipher like an active little viewer, and foolishly awaited the time when I could care about the characters even a tiny bit. It never happened, and the part of my brain that desires stimulation was left angered and deprived, which ironically is the same thing that happens when I (a.) go to Church or (b.) talk to a born-again twentysomething female saving herself for Marriage and lovin' Jesus all the way. Forget holy girls, I want the Mary Magdalenes.
