Lorna Irvine reviews 'a likeable enough effort' about the indie music scene in Glasgow.
That this is the debut film feature from Belle and Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch is patently clear: it is badly in need of editing and far too long. Ostensibly a love letter to Glasgow indie music, the protagonist is in fact an outsider.
Eve (Emily Browning) is a young Australian girl suffering from clinical depression and anorexia who moved to Glasgow with her constantly rowing parents. She is lonely, struggling to find her songwriting mojo, until she meets (by chance, what else) geekily handsome musician James (Olly Alexander) and his piano student, cute Cassie (Hannah Murray, effectively reprising her spaced-out role of the same name from Skins) who wafts around ineffectually.
Mental health issues always need to be handled delicately—and yet, there is a distinct lack of understanding or insight here. Eve often seems pretty one-dimensional, wide-eyed and pouty like a child. Close-ups of female suffering are problematic, as with the Pretty Eve in The Tub sequence, where she flops about unable to move like a rag doll, and James as a voyeur imagines “scrubbing and rubbing” her. Hmmm.
This isn't the only problem. It's a singularly lovely, adolescent, middle-class vision of Glasgow, where everyone lives in posh houses with grand pianos, and Glaswegians only have bit-parts (the wonderful Cora Bissett plays Eve's health worker, and members of Belle and Sebastian Sarah Martin and Chris Geddes pop up in cheeky cameos). The only allusion to anything other than a comfortable lifestyle is when Cassie is chatted up by little neds, whom she rebuffs with a snooty chuckle.
The best approach to this film is to regard it as a fairy tale, 'a Bill Forsyth lite', if you like. Of course there are nods to Godard, indie and retro clothes. The three attractive leads are fine, and there are many moments of humour, pathos and sweetness—such as I'll Have to Dance With Cassie in the hall, Eve's flirtation with pretentious musician Anton (Pierre Boulanger) or the trio discussing how 10CC got their name. Yet religious motifs sit uncomfortably with the rest of the film, and seem shoehorned in, in lieu of a proper ending.
It's a likeable enough effort, like a big extended pop video, but not entirely as affecting as it should be. Still, Glasgow's West End looks heavenly, and the soundtrack is mostly absolutely gorgeous with acoustic guitars and sweeping strings—even if missing Catherine Ireton's vocals from the original God Help the Girl line-up.
God Help the Girl (15) screens at GFT until August 28.
Directed by Stuart Murdoch
Starring: Emily Browning, Olly Alexander, Hannah Murray, Pierre Boulanger
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