Sometimes you see a movie that’s well made and impressively performed, but as hard as you might try, it just doesn’t quite resonate personally. The Diary of a Teenage Girl is such an example. It features a unique plot, great performances and is a solid movie overall, but also one that never quite spoke to this reviewer on a personal level.
The story is narrated by lead character Minnie (Bel Powley), a 15-year old whose teenage hormones are firing. Not only that, but she appears to be suffering from self-esteem issues and has a friendly but distanced relationship with her divorced, cash-strapped, hard-partying mother (Kristen Wiig). When Minnie falls for her mom’s new boyfriend Monroe (Alexander Skarsgard), she begins flirting. Before long, the advances are returned.
Naturally, it creates numerous complications. While bustling with energy and enjoying the contact, Minnie is not yet an adult emotionally. Thus, she slowly begins to manipulate both Monroe and other potential partners into sexual relations. Obviously, a lot of her behavior has to do with wanting to receive the attention and affection of others at any cost. This involves threats, as well as drug use and random encounters with strangers. All of it provides a degree of pleasure but provides little lasting impact. Nor does she appear to understand that she is being equally influenced and used by many of the same parties.
It’s a heavy piece, but the actors (in particular, Powley) manage to make their struggles tolerable and perform the material in a naturalistic manner. Minnie really has to transform from a quirky kid to a lost teen, before ultimately coming to the conclusion that seeking love from others doesn’t provide comfort unless she loves herself first. It’s a tough role with a lot of sexual material, but she’s entirely convincing.
What doesn’t work as well is the overreaching approach to carrying out the moral. The message is very obvious and the ideas described above are hammered again and again. It becomes a bit repetitive in its approach and sequences feel like the identical information is being delivered in the same manner. As a result, the pacing begins to suffer and ultimately wears attention down. There are a few interesting visual tricks with Minnie’s animated artwork that comes to life as she narrates, but they are used infrequently and can’t quite energize the story.
The strangest aspect is the overly clean and simple resolution. Considering the personal issues, strained relationships, drug abuse and sexual addiction, it seems difficult to believe that a hug, a montage and a brief epiphany have instantly resolved all the film’s very complex issues. Perhaps the simple statement is intended to be a positive but somewhat naive assertion by one of the characters, but the impression these moments suggest is that all psychological matters have been dealt with. Truthfully, it left me a little cold.
There are some great performances that depict very flawed people in The Diary of a Teenage Girl. And I would recommend it to some based on the work of the stars. However, after a while the plot recurrences felt like overkill. And ultimately, this reviewer just couldn’t buy into the hasty and simplistic wrap-up that ties everything up in a neat little bow. This dairy is full of revelations, but they don’t make as big an impact as they should.