Meisje

Netherlands native Dorothée Van Den Berghe makes her feature-film directorial debut with Girl, a study of three women at three different and critical points in their lives. Young Muriel (Charlotte Vanden Eynde) leaves her small village and heads for Brussels in order to establish her own identity, leaving her family and boyfriend behind. Once she arrives in the city, she takes up residence with Laura (Els Dottermans), a middle-aged woman whose biological clock has recently kicked into overdrive. Laura discovers that her young lover Oskar (Mathias Schoenaerts) has no intentions of having children, which prompts her to ditch him and replace him with someone more amenable to raising a family. Muriel, in the meantime, has been watching from the sidelines and has decided to emulate Laura's life rather than create her own -- starting with hooking up with the newly unattached Oskar. Watching both women from the sidelines is Muriel's mother Martha (Frieda Pittoors), who made a number of sacrifices once Muriel came into her life, both professionally and romantically. Martha reconnects with an old flame and begins her own affair. Girl was an entry in the 2002 Locarno International Film Festival. - Ryan Shriver, All Movie Guide