Television Review: A Girl Thing (2001)

Many screen works can benefit a lot from talented cast, but on certain occasions it is exactly the talented cast that makes some of the flaws in said work more apparent. One such example can be provided by A Girl Thing, 2001 two-part cable television miniseries written and directed by Lee Rose.

The protagonist is Dr. Beth Noonan (played by Stockard Channing), New York City therapist and the plot is divided into four parts, each dealing with some of her patients. The first is Lauren Travis (played by Elle Macpherson), a successful attorney who, during the otherwise disastrous double blind date finds the other woman, an artist Casey Montgomery (played by Kate Capshaw), inexplicably attractive and starts lesbian relationship much to the dismay and displeasure of her best friend and colleague Claire (played by Kelly Rowman). Second segment deals with Helen MacCormack (played by Glenne Headley), an angry woman whose rich mother Josephine (played by Elisabeth Franz) has died and left the inheritance to her and her sisters Kathy (played by Allison Janney) and Kim (played by Rebecca De Mornay) under condition that they spend a week under same roof, which all three, due to lifetime of grudges, find difficult to do. Third segment deals with Nia Morgan (played by Lynn Whitfield) who suspects that her husband Paul (played by Scott Bakula) is cheating on her and hires detective agency whose operative Rachel Logan (played by Linda Hamilton), while working as “decoy”, gets humiliatingly rejected by Paul only to discover that he is having an affair with middle-aged waitress Betty McCarthy (played by Mia Farrow). The final segment shows how Dr. Noonan has to deal with Suzanne Nabor (played by Camryn Manheim), woman who is actually quite disturbed and whose hostile and verbally aggressive attitude escalate into actions that could threaten Dr. Noonan, her staff, friends and other patients.

A Girl Thing is, in an essence, an anthology film, like so many such works, has some parts that are better than other. The first one is going to be favourite, at least among certain segments of male audience, because it features Australian supermodel engaging in rather steamy lesbian sex scene. MacPherson’s willingness to take such part in that scene would, in a way, compensate for her apparent lack of acting ability compared with her peers and the less than credible concept of such beautiful and successful character having to go in therapy in the first place. The second part looks like some sort of parody of Big Brother-like reality shows that were becoming rage at the time, only to script unwisely turns into some sort of serious psychological drama. Third part looks the most generic, although it fits perfectly in female-centric theme of the miniseries and depiction of men as insensitive treacherous pigs. The fourth meanders between being a comedy of manners and serious and often disturbing psychological thriller. There are some things in A Girl Thing that are consistently good, like the jazzy musical score by Terence Blanchard who is actually mentioned by characters and appears in cameo role as himself. There are also some things that are consistently bad, like the dialogue that seems pretentious, full of cheap pop psychology, and ultimately makes almost all characters dislikable, including Dr. Noonan. But the worst part is pacing. A Girl Thing could have worked better as feature film with each episode shortened in half. This way it requires audience to spend four hours that could have be invested into something much appealing.

RATING: 3/10 (+)

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