Much has been written on the body image issues adolescent girls develop because of advertisements featuring women well outside the norm and photoshopped elements. Framing that in the context of a missing persons investigation, In Her Skin is the true story of Caroline Reid’s mental breakdown and the murder it leads her to commit. Though the film can brag an impressive cast, some over-the-top performances detract from the boast and sabotage an otherwise engaging story with a disturbingly intimate murder scene.
One night, Rachel (Kate Bell) never came home. She told her boyfriend that she had a high-paying, secretive job and was never heard from again. As expected, Kate’s parents (Guy Pearce and Miranda Otto) careen from typical concern to fear-inspired frenzy as the time spent searching for their daughter goes from minutes to hours and hours to days. They camp out at the local police station and pull every string to push the investigation further.
Meanwhile, the story restarts from the perspective of Caroline Reid (Ruth Bradley), a teenage girl prone to bouts of hysterical depression and writing suicidal letters of self-loathing based on her discontent with her own body. Gradually we learn that she envied Rachel’s petit dancer’s form and concocted a plan to push that fascination to dangerous levels of obsession.
It’s hard to credibly portray heart-wrenching grief in such a way that it touches the audience without seeming impossibly contrived, and In Her Skin has examples of this nestled up close with more subtle takes. On one hand you have Guy Pearce whose performance as a father ricocheting between hope and mourning features acting straining any shred of credibility. His hyperventilating, screaming and wringing of garments never feels genuine and its artificial nature only becomes more glaring when he’s measured against Miranda Otto’s more controlled portrayal of a mother’s despair in light of a daughter lost. The difference between their takes is as stark as that of day and night and it reflects poorly on director Simone North who evidently opted out of reeling Pearce’s performance in to a more bearable degree.
Ruth Bradley’s performance has this dichotomy combined into one. In her fits of ranting and raving about her bodily dissatisfaction she’s pitch perfect most of the time but occasionally stumbles into a caricature. However, in scenes where Caroline stews in her own insecurity and anxiety over her plan, at work or in her apartment, Bradley’s performance never misses a beat. Her performance as a teen whose mind bends under the weight of her own judgment until it breaks suggests promising things for her future. It’s interesting to note that Bradley’s weakest spots in the film come from her interactions with Sam Neill, who plays her father. Their conversations are rather flat, less like they’re talking to one another and more like they’re reciting lines which are then being edited together. Blame Bradley or blame Neill, it doesn’t matter; what matters is that the one true relationship Caroline is supposed to have in the story feels forced.
That In Her Skin is based on the true story of Caroline Reid’s murder of Rachel Barber makes the interpretation of the murder all the more chilling. North already filmed the death in an incredibly visceral way, and assuming the script based the scene off of the coroner’s report for the recovered body, then watching the very slow and labored process by which she died at Caroline’s hand should stick with you.
DVD Bonus Features
The DVD features interviews with the cast and Director Simone North, a behind the scenes featurette, a trailer, and deleted scenes.
Fans of crime thrillers will find In Her Skin a rewarding experience, though it’s important to note that very little of the film is devoted to the arrest of Caroline Reid despite the fact that it starts with the story of the Barber parents. The story returns to their search throughout the film, but ultimately its purpose is to look at the tolls of mourning and the mania and Caroline’s depression. If the crime aspect isn’t reason enough to draw you in, then an opportunity to see the talented Ruth Bradley in a role worlds apart from her work in the BBC series Primeval should do the trick.
"In Her Skin" is on sale June 7, 2011 and is not rated. Drama. Written and directed by Simone North. Starring Guy Pearce, Miranda Otto, Ruth Bradley, Sam Neill.
