The new Small Town Film Noire movie Girl is a mean little film starring Bella Thorne, a young lady who is getting a lot of work lately. About all I knew going in was that she stars and it’s some kind of revenge flick. And, indeed, this is a gritty, dark, completely non-glamorous film that starts strong… but doesn’t finish strong.

Thorn plays a dirt poor backwoods girl who is not only the dame who comes to town in this noire, but who also wields a hatchet and will have her revenge. She’s out to kill her deadbeat dad who has threatened her mamma’s life over child support. Unfortunately, she finds out rather quickly someone done kill him before she could so she goes on a revenge kick to find the man who killed her pa. What follows is a lot of dirty little secrets, violence, and Mickey Rourke as the town sheriff (so you know things probably ain’t on the up-and-up).

I love the dark and somber look of the film and I love the main character. She’s a blunt weapon with a cynical (and accurate) world view and she fits right into this desperately poor, desperately corrupt town. There’s some excellent and toned-down dialog scenes and some tight, no-nonsense thrills that drive the character forward. I was all set to give this a great review… until about the middle of the film and certainly the disastrous final act.

I don’t think I’ve seen a movie fall apart so fast. The tin-eared, cringe exposition-heavy dialog as secrets are revealed just kills the mood. And there’s just so much of it. There were certainly better ways to pause the entire movie to reveal these secrets but they didn’t find it. Scenes start to drag as the actors try to find their way through the mess and often fail. Thorne pulls off some truly terrible emotional beats which is surprising since most of her performance was good. And Mickey Rourke… I shouldn’t throw stones, but someone’s gotta point out a face lift so bad it reminds me of Tim Allen’s Botox scene in Christmas with the Kranks (a movie I should never be made to think of again). Rourke remains as slimy and black-hearted as ever, but it’s a little hard to take the waxen engraving that has become his face seriously in some shots.

I wish I could say check this one out for the qualities it legitimately does have. But someone needed to take a few more passes on the script which is where most of the fault lays. The actors couldn’t save it and it’s hard to say where the fault there lies. But I will say the director and cinematographer have talent and Bella Thorne certainly took a chance so credit to them for that much. The strengths don’t outweigh the faults but at least they do save the movie from a total disaster.

Score: 74