***

Cracks sp- The title of this movie according Juno Temple, one of the stars of it who was at our screening, comes from South African slang meaning “crushes” such as being enamored with someone. The movie is set in the 1930s on a small island, which is part of Great Britain where there is a girl’s boarding school. The girls who seem to be of high school age are formed in teams and one of the teacher leaders is beautiful Miss G ( Eva Green who was a James Bond girl in previous movie ). The girls seem to idolize Miss G who tells them stories of her travels and encourages them they can do anything they set their mind to do. Di ( Juno Temple) is one of the more accomplished young girls and is a leader of the group, is a great swimmer and diver  and prime follower of Miss G. Along comes a new girl sent to the island by her Spanish aristocrat family  to join the school and their group. Fiamma (Maria Valverde) is beautiful, intelligent and an  even better diver (symbolic of her great skills). She is worldly and has traveled in ways that Miss G has only imagined. The dynamics of the relationship between teacher and the girls is dramatically changed and the meaning of “cracks” comes to a boiling point. On this magnificent island that gives you the feeling of everything being the same for so many years, we have a contrast of confusion and turmoil in these young women. The question that we have is will this interesting and powerful story grab and hold the audience. We found ourselves pondering that question, rather than empathizing and being taken up by the movie. Juno Temple who spoke with our audience after the film, related how first time Director Jordon Scott (daughter of Ridley Scott) had the actresses playing the students write an essay of what they imagined was their own back story which they read to each other so they would understand their characters. Perhaps one of the problems was that we as the audience were not in on this background. This may be why we found the  characters to be  somewhat “cardboard like”  and stereotypical. While they were quite different, we didn’t know them as individuals. In the end, nothing will ever be the same but we are not really sure why. (2011)