The Girl in the Book is a 2015 drama about a young book editor who is forced to confront a troubling chapter from her past when a bestselling author re-enters her life.
Today’s Netflix Pick is a terrific little drama that features two great performances by two actresses playing the same person at different ages. Starring Emily VanCamp and Ana Mulvoy-Ten, this is both a tragedy and an uplifting story about the burdens of the past and the hardship in moving on. It’s The Girl in the Book and it’s what you’re watching tonight. Here’s why.
THE STORY: Directed by Marya Cohn it follows hopeful but uninspired novelist Alice Harvey (Emily VanCamp), who has lived in the shadow of her pompous but highly successful literary agent father (Michael Cristofer), working as a junior editor for an overbearing, belittling boss (Jordan Lage) at a publishing house. She is numb and directionless, finding solace in drunken one-night stands as she copes with the oppressive memories of a writer named Milan (Michael Nyqvist), a man in his late thirties her father introduced her to when she was in high school (played young by Ana Mulvoy-Ten). Milan toyed with Alice’s emotions and writing creativity, eventually betraying her with a fictitious account of that experience and Alice’s coming of age in a book that became an underground classic that now is being reissued and put in Alice’s hands for marketing.
WHY YOU NEED TO WATCH: Hands down the women in this movie are thing to see with both VanCamp and the young Mulvoy-Ten doing astonishing work. We interviewed Mulvoy-Ten about this film and her experiences with the demanding role and it only served to prove that she’s a talent well worth watching. Cohn, who also wrote the story has a delicate touch, crafting a touching and heartbreaking story about betrayal and trust, giving the the character of Alice tremendous depth in the two stages of her life. A quiet, emotional movie, this is an exceptional drama that will move you. Read our full review here. It’s streaming on Netflix right now.