Ripe Reviews

An unusual coming-of-age story that features a marvelously sensuous atmosphere, but veers off the track in search of a plot. Violet (Monica Keena) and Rosie (Daisy Eagan), orphaned adolescent sisters on the run, wind up on a military base and become the unlikely charges of groundskeeper Pete (Gordon Currie). Rosie is a sister-in-spirit to Patty McCormack's BAD SEED, confused about the changes taking place in her own body and given to mutilating small animals. Her sense of betrayal when Violet takes up with Pete has inevitably tragic results. The first two-thirds of Mo Ogrodnik's film weaves a compelling -- if far-fetched -- web, sticky with an aura that's equal parts burgeoning eroticism and bewilderment, recalling the work of Carson McCullers. The film's look is clearly influenced by Nan Goldin's provocative photographs; cinematographer Wolfgang Held finds subterranean beauty in Pete's naked-bulb-lit digs, and in the budding physical charms of Eagan and, especially, Keena. Unfortunately, the need for a bang-up denouement results in a violent and needlessly melodramatic ending to an otherwise subtle and carefully crafted character study.