It has already become somewhat worrying how many films from America in recent years thematize life in some kind of strict, conservative, fundamentalist Christian communities. I hope that in reality there aren’t that many of them, but as soon as so many films are made on this topic, it is obvious that it is a warning and worrying trend, and one of the better ones was the debut film of the young American filmmaker Laurel Parmet. She takes us in “The Starling Girl” to one such rather closed fundamentalist evangelical community in rural Kentucky.
17-year-old Jem Starling (Eliza Scanlen), a girl at a tender age who discovers herself and the life around her and tries to figure out what she wants from life, has the misfortune of being born there and living there. Like almost all people her age, Jem feels longing and passion, wants to feel first love, and at the same time, because of her completely normal motives, she feels like a sinner, as if she is doing and wanting something that is forbidden. Or worse, being tempted by evil old Satan. And that Satan will soon materialize in the form of the ten years older son of the head of the community and the main preacher.
Married Owen (Lewis Pullman) has just returned from missionary work in Puerto Rico, and to make matters worse, Jemma’s parents have given Owen’s younger brother Ben permission to court her, and they are convinced that the two will make a wonderful couple. However, her parents, especially her father, have serious problems and the sudden death of his best friend and bandmate from the let’s call it secular days will throw the old man into a severe depression and return to alcohol again. During this time, the attraction between Jem and Owen will develop more and more, and from the beginning it is clear that it is one of those romances that cannot end well.
And maybe I’m too cynical when it comes to such stupid, almost primitive religious communities, because it’s incomprehensible to me that such a way of thinking is still possible today, but Parmet made a very good romantic drama. A fine character study about a girl who discovers love for the first time in her life, but also a girl who is frustrated and increasingly angry because of those stupid strict rules that are imposed on them and by which they should live. And the young Scanlen (Sharp Objects, Babyteeth) is excellent, and we understand the inner struggle between the beliefs imposed on her and what she wants and really feels.
Of course, it is well known that usually in such communities of brainwashed idiots there are women who do not behave the way men from these same communities imagined. When we add to that Jema’s naivety, not only because of her age, but also because of living almost in a glass bell, then it is not difficult to assume that she will be the one who will have to take all the blame for what has been done. But Jem is a great character because we understand that she develops over time, matures, slowly begins to understand how the world around her works, so that by the end she will experience an interesting transformation, and the film will wrap up in a high-quality, smart way.