MILLERS GIRL movie poster | ©2024 Lionsgate

Rating: R
Stars: Martin Freeman, Jenna Ortega, Bashir Salahuddin, Gideon Adlon, Dagmara Dominczyk, Christine Adams
Writer: Jade Halley Bartlett
Director: Jade Halley Bartlett
Distributor: Lionsgate
Release Date: January 26, 2024

MILLER’S GIRL is narrated, a little, by Cairo Sweet (Jenna Ortega), who begins in voiceover with, “What is an adult? … I am eighteen, and entirely unremarkable.” The last part of this statement is arguably untrue, as we soon see. Estranged from her ever-traveling parents, Cairo lives alone in an isolated old mansion in Level Hill, Tennessee. She tells us that she is lonely, she reads a lot, and has never been outside her small town.

Despite all this information, it’s Cairo’s high school literature teacher, Jonathan Miller (Martin Freeman), who we get to know better. The more we learn about Jonathan, the more we can tell he’s a trainwreck waiting to happen. Cairo turns out to be the truck on his tracks, but it seems like he’s doomed to go off the rails eventually in any event.

Jonathan had one book of fiction published, thirty years ago, but hasn’t written since. He’s married to Bea (Dagmara Dominczyk), who brings her laptop to the dinner table. Jonathan’s best friend is fellow teacher and school sports coach Boris Fillmore (Bashir Salahuddin).

Cairo shows up in Jonathan’s classroom one day, saying that his course has been recommended by her friend Winnie (Gideon Adlon), who’s back for a second term. Jonathan is struck by Cairo’s writing talent, her ambition to attend Yale – and more struck by the fact that she’s read (and memorized) his book.

There are a lot of complications as to what comes next, not only in Cairo’s motivations and the situation between her and Jonathan, but also in the relationship between Cairo and Winnie. This is depicted with nuance and great credibility by the performers and by writer/director Jade Halley Bartlett. The two young women want to impress each other, but they have different needs in the connection between one another, and this creates its own issues.

Jonathan gives the class a writing assignment for a short story in the style of a favorite author. Cairo chooses Henry James, despite this writer not being on the approved high school list. Jonathan giving Cairo permission to do this is the first in a string of poor decisions.

We never know for certain what happens between Cairo and Jonathan beyond the fact that they share a kiss. Filmmaker Bartlett leaves this open to our interpretation. What she does, very well, is show how quickly and completely things can spin out of control.

Freeman provides Jonathan with the necessary superficial charm and wit and underlying panic that make the character wholly plausible. Ortega plays Cairo as a force of nature – we readily believe she is brilliant, passionate and forceful. Adlon is affecting as Winnie.

There are a few little glitches in MILLER’S GIRL, starting with the notion that, in a town that small, Cairo and Jonathan haven’t ever noticed each other before. Likewise, with the money at her disposal, and her unobservant parents, we wonder that Cairo has never explored the wider world.

But overall, MILLER’S GIRL paints a picture that makes sense on its own terms. The film isn’t trying to illustrate a generic notion of an adult mentor/teen protégé disaster, but rather something idiosyncratic enough to keep us engaged throughout.

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