“God Help the Girl” is a perplexing and curious thing: a film that seemingly wears its influences on its sleeve while at the same time bears no traces of that influence at all. Is it enough to say a work of art is an homage if it contains nothing but misguided or hollow signifiers?
Written and directed by Stuart Murdoch, the film musical is based on songs he wrote for a concept album of the same name — a soundtrack to a film that did not yet exist — released in 2009. The record is similar to the work Murdoch does with Belle and Sebastian, the melodic pop outfit for which he has been chief singer and songwriter for almost 20 years, in that its gentle focus on bucolic settings and the malaise of modern life is music about and largely for teenagers.
The film doesn’t drift too far from these themes. Eve (Emily Browning), who escapes a psychiatric hospital toward the beginning of the film, wants to be a musician. While at a concert she meets another struggling musician (Olly Alexander), and the two form a close bond. Eve moves into his apartment, and soon they are joined by one of his guitar students, Cassie (Hannah Murray), and the three form a band. Relationships get in the way, there is a lot of sulking, and ultimately a bittersweet, if melancholic, ending.
In between, there are songs. Since this is a musical in the most traditional sense, the characters often break into song at random. That can be great if done correctly (or interestingly). But “God Help the Girl” isn’t “Meet Me in St. Louis” for the twee crowd. The film is more defined by music videos than it is by musical films, and while the songs were written with a narrative in mind, that narrative does not translate to the screen.
The movie would have worked better if it were made up of a series of musical numbers back-to-back. Instead we have spaces in between filled with pointless and repetitive exchanges, as if we’re just biding time until the next song. The transitions between the music and the story aren’t seamless, and we’re left with two separate films — a minor-key quotidian melodrama and a collection of music videos. The two are fine on their own. Together, the end result is jarring.
That’s a shame because, even if you’re not a fan of the music, there are moments of pleasure to be had. The songs are joyful and inoffensively pleasant and light, and the actors are perfectly capable of handling the material, even if they often seem a little confused about what kind of movie they’re starring in. “God Help the Girl,” from the beginning, was an ambitious project, and it might have been successful if the person behind the camera were able to handle the material with more dexterity. As it is now, god help the audience.
