Rufus Norris' "Broken" is a movie I've been awaiting for quite a long time and now the movie, released overseas last year after playing the festival circuit, finally gets it's US release on today, July 19th.


As a fan of young actresses it's always great to discover a new one and "Broken" has a great new one.


Young Eloise Laurence gives a fantastic performance in the film as Skunk, a preteen diabetic who lives with her dad (Tim Roth), older brother and live-in nanny. 


Being a coming-of-age movie, it tracks the girl's... Well, coming-of-age as she falls for three guys: a slightly older boy, her teacher and the town's resident "pervert".


Cillian Murphy plays the teacher, Mr. Mike Kiernan, by the way. He's good but severely underused.


With a structure similar to a present day set version of "Atonement", all the drama in the film starts with a lie by another girl in the neighborhood. It seems as though all the drama in this town is caused by this one dysfunctional family but we see pretty much everything through Skunk's eyes.


Laurence's performance as skunk is revelatory but the problem with "Broken" is that it's a wholly predictable, cliched coming-of-age melodrama. 


There are some good moments (almost all come from Laurence) however which makes me give this a higher rating than I probably normally would.


I'm excited to see what Ms. Eloise Laurence does next....


B+





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