Sam This movie is all about Abbie Cornish performance ! She delivered Oscar like performance in the movie. She portrays several expressions - Guilt for being bad mother to her son, Stress due to the poverty, circumstances. He has brilliantly expressed the pain and suppressed anger she is going through in her life. Finally comes a situation where she becomes indirectly responsible for a young Mexican child girl to loose her mother. The movie reminds us how we all belong to same humanity and how circumstances changes us. Abbbi redeems herself by showing compassion to the young girl!

SnoopyStyle Ashley (Abbie Cornish) is a poor Texan mother who loses custody of her son after a drunk driving incident. She desperately wants her son back from foster care. Her father Tommy (Will Patton) lives on the Mexican side of Loredo. She discovers that he traffics illegals over the border. While over in Mexico, she tries to organize a crossing for $500 per person. However the group gets swept away. She's left with a little girl whose mother drowned. Her father's advise is to simply walk away.Director/writer David Riker's story is a simplified idea culminating in what exactly Ashley will do with the girl. The movie depends mostly on Abbie Cornish's performance. She's very stone-faced in most of this movie. I see the frustrated 'stressed' woman that she's portraying. It's a very subtle performance although a few additional animated scenes would be great. The combative little girl is done well.

rudyalhmbr This was a wonderful film that stirred the heart but that ultimately did not complete the 'karma' that was called for (see the film.) Ashley's predicament is fairly typical of many Americans who feel that the system is stacked against them failing to see the inherent flaws in their character that is the true cause of their problems. The cast was spot-on in their acting especially Ashley (Abbie Cornish)and Rosa (Maritza Hernandez.) They carried the film and Rosa just about breaks your heart whenever the pixie is on screen.The two points that really stayed with me though after viewing the film were:1.The scale of the desperation that drives people to extreme and dangerous measures to escape the grinding poverty that is overwhelming and that destroys families. The hollow resigned faces of the people attempting to cross into the U.S. are haunting. And...2. The lack of a fitting resolution to the problem created by Ashley's actions. She owed Rosa much more.I don't think I put any information that might be considered a spoiler but since I'm new to writing reviews, I checked the spoiler box just in case. But to sum up, I really enjoyed this film for it's realism and the excelsior performance by the actors.

mcravener I was expecting "The Girl" to be mired in the stereotypical contrast of poverty-stricken Mexico vs. the wealthy United States with the protagonist Ashley (Abbie Cornish) coming to make a living off the misery of others, in a manner similar to that of a drug-dealer.My low expectations were thankfully confounded. Instead I was pulled into the evolution of the protagonist as she gets too close to the people who want to cross the border to be an effectual cold-hearted "coyote".Abbie Cornish's portrayal of a poor, white woman bred on low-grade racism is totally credible. But this is only a starting point for her character, as she travels on an emotional journey in Mexico which comes to mirror her life in Texas, but allows her to become something more than she was.