Clappy Rating: A Very Good Girl (2023)
Before anything else: trigger warning for death, attempted rape, violent imagery, and many sexual themes are present in this movie. Viewer discretion is advised.
First off, the movie is definitely not for everyone. The film features the characters of Philo (Kathryn Bernardo), and Molly (Dolly de Leon)
who had created a name for herself as Philo to fool Molly into trusting her, with plans of destroying Molly after an incident five years ago that killed Philo’s mother. In a plot that resembles The Count of Monte Cristo, Philo hatches a plan to systematically take away everything Molly holds dear while becoming the most important person in her life to eventually take it all away from her. Essentially, the movie is a modern retelling of a classic story, and while the positives outweigh the negatives, there are simply too many issues with it that keep it from becoming a modern classic.
The movie is absolutely chaotic yet cohesive, simple to understand yet complicated as all hell, completely logical and downright baffling. Again, this movie is not for everyone. At first, I thought this movie might have focused on themes of womanhood, considering the early references in the film that related to the female experience, like how the opening sequence discussed the empowerment of a particular woman in a “man’s world”. However, its lack of nuance in this respect by being quickly dismissed by the focal character and focus on the revenge plot made it clear that the heart of this story remains in its theme of vengeance first and foremost, with there being multiple instances where Philo casts aside the lives of others to further her own goals while putting on a façade of being anything else.
Fortunately, the plot of the movie was carried by the powerful performances of Kathryn Bernardo and Dolly De Leon among the main cast, with the kind of stellar delivery and acting nuance that makes you wonder for a moment whether an honest, genuine bond might be forming between the two leads. Callbacks to previous scenes are explosive and powerful, making it clear that the movie is sure to reference itself in poignant moments to punctuate its themes of revenge, selfish morality, and the consequences of committing to one’s justice and neglecting that of others. Speaking of scenes, the cinematography of the film was well done. Scenes are accented by great camera work that makes masterful use of transitions, shot compositions, symbolism, and framing. The narrative simply would not have felt as visceral if not for the way the scenes were presented.
It would be quite remiss of me not to discuss the gray morality presented in the film, and the themes of revenge that plague what it means to be “a good girl”. Immediately, we are presented with a premise of promise: a justified revenge plot wherein an orphaned girl, Philo, exposes the crimes of the wealthy and powerful Molly after the latter causes the death of Philo’s mother. However, the selfishness of this plot would later come into conflict with her good morals, dealing with the lives of individuals connected to Molly’s power means having to affect people who are not directly responsible for Philo’s vengeance. This later starts showing that her definition of good, and therefore morally right by Philo’s standards, is skewed. By her standards, innocents are harmed, and she must learn to accept it.
Whether the titular “very good girl” Philo believed in truly existed or not is a question the movie poses to the audience, and although the movie makes an effort to provide an answer, it compels the audience to ask, “Is the movie right?”. Perhaps you’ll agree, but perhaps you’ll not.
This is all well and good, but the movie itself gets quite a lot wrong — there are many aspects in the film that require some improvement, and the fact that they’re so glaring keeps this movie from reaching its full potential. There are leaps of logic that would have you do mental gymnastics to help you believe that these are actions that the characters would do in a realistic scenario, there are moments where an action lacks so much foresight that it becomes unbelievable that someone written as smart as they are could make such an obvious mistake, and there are scenarios that come out of nowhere and subsequently go nowhere as well, becoming plot devices instead of enriching a world that needed to be fleshed out.
It does eventually get to a point where the writing inconsistencies can cause the film to be too unbelievable to take seriously, causing a disconnect with the audience. Worse, these moments can happen during the most important parts of the film and thereby cause the audience to feel robbed of their emotional investment.
At the end of the day, the film tries its best to present vengeance in a light of gray morality that can feel compelling at times, but also forced whenever it fails to stick its landing and inevitably fumbles on its own executions. It can make the audience question its themes as intended just as much as it can make the audience question some decisions made over the film that ultimately hinder it from achieving the greatness it truly deserves. One last note about its message is the fact that it makes a conclusion that may be extremely unsatisfying for a lot of people, taking the decisions away from the characters and allowing the audience to experience a modern version of the deus ex machina.
Overall, the movie has a ton of compelling ideas that keep it from being similar to other films released in the market. However, the execution of these ideas is a different matter: all the pieces to a modern masterpiece are there, but it falls apart due to its many inconsistencies and lackluster finale. From all this, this movie ends up getting a 3/5 star Clappy Rating.
