Girl Review

Girl Review

            In the powerful drama Girl, Lukas Dhont shares the story of Lara (Victor Polster) a transgender ballerina. Desperately wanting to finish her physical transition from male to female while also dealing with the pressures of dance academy, Lara struggles with her mental and physical health. Dhont creates an important and insightful coming-of-age story that gives a much-needed look into the life of a transgender teenager.

            Lara starts dance academy at a late age, causing her technical skills to be behind most of the other students in her class. She takes private lessons to catch up to the other students, but this adds another commitment to her already insanely busy life. While she deals with the stress of becoming a ballerina, she also has to deal with endless meetings and conversations with her doctors about completing her physical transition from male to female. The one thing she wants as much or maybe even more than becoming a ballerina is having her gender reassignment surgery. However, Lara has to be healthy enough to undergo the surgery but the audience gradually finds out that she is struggling with her physical health. Most likely due to stress, we find out that Lara is not eating or sleeping as well as she needs to. The doctors tell Lara and her father that they will not do the surgery until she physically recuperates.

            Lara’s relationship with her father Mathias (Arieh Worthalter) is one of the most endearing and emotional aspects of the film. With her mother not in the picture, Lara has a strong bond with her incredibly supportive father. They talk about every topic together, or as much as a teenage girl wants to talk about her crushes or her emotions with her father. Even though they do have a close relationship, Lara still has a difficult time expressing her true feelings and struggles with her father. She holds back her deepest worries and thoughts to the point that her father forces her to stay home from dance class.

            Victor Polster gives an amazing performance as Lara. An extremely complicated role to conquer as a cisgender male, Polster expertly portrays Lara’s reserved and determined personality. Lara’s habit of internalizing her internal struggles results in a unique and guarded protagonist. She is extremely hesitant to voice her true feelings to even the closest people in her life. This quality can be incredibly relatable to some viewers, and just as intriguing. Most people that look back on their teenage years can also identify with Lara’s intense determination and eagerness. From completing her physical transition to perfecting her dancing, Lara knows what she wants and she is determined to attain it as soon as possible. This combination of qualities creates a captivating character that Dhont takes his time to develop. As Lara’s story unfolds, the audience slowly receives more hints as to how she deals with her stressful circumstances.

            Although she does not blatantly express her struggles, Dhont carefully develops them through intimate camerawork. The frequent close ups on Lara’s face, even though she can hardly be described as expressive, give the audience a closer look at her chaotic feelings. Perhaps the film is more intriguing because Lara does not explicitly state her emotions. The audience has to pay close attention to her facial expressions, actions, and limited dialogue to piece together the chaos and stress going on in her mind. Dhont also highlights this chaos and stress through the use of shaky tracking shots of Lara. This is extremely apparent in the dance sequences, particularly her first performance scene. The camera hectically follows her as she dances on stage, then leaves the stage, then goes back on stage to dance again. The intense movement of the camera accentuates the stress she feels, which culminates when she passes out in the bathroom backstage.

            The sound design also contributes to the different tones of the film. In the frantic and stressful dance scenes, the music builds and accentuates the chaos Lara feels. These moments highly contrast with other scenes that use primarily diegetic sound. These scenes are often moments of clarity or peace, and the absence of music or nondiegetic sound heightens the audience’s anticipation of her actions. For example, in one of the final scenes Lara decides to complete her physical transition by herself, and Dhont only uses diegetic sound to intensify the effect of her gruesome yet powerful act. 

            An influential drama with an important message, Girl shares the underrepresented story of a transgender teenager that struggles with the transition process. This much-needed film presents a realistic and authentic story that will hopefully be seen and accepted by audiences everywhere. 

Writer: Lukas Dhont, Angelo Tijssens

Director: Lukas Dhont

Producer: Dirk Impens

Main Cast: Victor Polster, Arieh Worthalter

Running Time: 100 minutes