Gregg Araki (Kaboom, Mysterious Skin) is best known for his work in Queer cinema, exploring issues of sexuality, body image and family dysfunction. In this vein, Laura Kasischke’s novel seems like ripe material. It tells the story of a precocious daughter of a Midwest housewife who mysteriously disappears. However, Araki’s clunky handling results in dull, predictable melodrama.
Shailene Woodley (Divergent, The Fault In Our Stars) is Kat, a 17-year-old whose recent weight loss has given her an unexpected sexual power over men. This she uses with aplomb. Kat isn’t the only one struggling with her transformation; her deeply dissatisfied mother (Eva Green) perceives Kat’s sudden beauty as an unbearable usurping, adding another layer of insult to her bored, unfulfilled existence. Green brings a camp intensity to her ‘Mommie Dearest’ breakdown. She flirts with Kat’s dull-witted boyfriend (Shiloh Fernandez) and aggressively obsesses over Kat’s body.
When Kat’s mother disappears, the plot plunges into staid ‘telenovela’ tropes, the cheapness of which isn’t helped by the tackily rendered 1988 setting. Woodley’s Kat is the film’s saviour: abrasive, arrogant and unashamed of her sexuality, her cool interior monologues nicely dissect the teenage mind. However, because there are no flashbacks to Kat in her awkward stages, her character feels less empathetic than she should. This coming of age thriller is ultimately like Kat’s boyfriends. “You scratch the surface and there’s just… more surface.”