Miller’s Girl is a drama/thriller that follows the affair between a high school girl and her creative writing teacher. It stars Martin Freeman as Jonathan Miller and Jenna Ortega as Cairo Sweet, which is way too impressive for the quality of the rest of the movie.
My first thought when watching this movie is that is incredibly uncomfortable to watch, and not in a provocative way. It’s uncomfortable in the way that it feels exploitive. Like someone had a dream that Jenna Ortega was trying to seduce them and wanted to make it happen in real life. Nowhere is this more present than with the script. The dialogue is so incredibly horny that it made me feel weird, even watching this alone.
Miller’s Girl also incredibly bland. The movie tries to have this gothic atmosphere, but it feels incredibly out of place given it takes place in modern-day Tennessee. The script tries to match that, really digging into the thesaurus and dictionary to say fundamental things in the most obnoxious way possible. Opening the movie with “I’m 18 and entirely unremarkable” should’ve been the first giveaway that the script would be bad.
The atmosphere of the movie also just is very weird. It takes place at a school, but it feels incredibly empty. The schools and the houses feel more like sets than anything lived in, outside of Miller’s house, and even then, that’s just by having papers thrown around.
I will give Ortega and Freeman credit for making the most out of what they were given. I don’t love the Southern accents at times but, looking beyond that, they do give strong performances rooted in emotions. While Ortega’s character is written to be very basic, she can add a lot more depth and nuance to her performance. Freeman looks the part, combining his maturity with the emotional struggle of everything that is happening with his wife, his career, and Cairo.
The movie tries to strike a chord with its moral ambiguity. Both parties are to blame, and both are also victims of each other’s actions. Miller is an adult, with the power to stop the inappropriate relationship from ever starting. Cairo plots this all out with the help of her friend, who is also trying to seduce another teacher. She does it because the friend pointed out that she wouldn’t have anything interesting to write about for her Yale admission letter.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Miller’s Girl is alright, I guess. There is a lot of hypocrisy in the story which is a little frustrating but it’s not worth the nitpick. The dialogue and story read like a fanfiction and that’s not the type of thing I want to see. I can imagine it has its audience, but it’s not for me.
