The first 15 or 20 minutes of this movie sets the tone as the characters are not very attractive, do not behave in very attractive manners, and that part of the movie is filmed in a dark style. I found myself wondering where all that was headed and whether I should even continue watching. Afterwards it picked up a bit and found the whole product interesting but not very rewarding.
Toni Collette is Arden, with little self-confidence and taking care of her very difficult mother, the veteran of 1950s movies, Piper Laurie as Arden's Mother. Arden is wandering in a field behind the house and comes upon a body, the "Dead Girl" of the movie's title.
After that the police get involved, and we begin to be introduced to the various other characters who we eventually have a connection with the dead girl. One of those is forensic technician Rose Byrne as Leah, who thinks the dead girl might be her sister who went missing some years back. Leah is still depressed over not finding resolution to her sister's disappearance.
Brittany Murphy turns out to be the dead girl and her mother finally realizes that. She had had a falling out some years before and had left home. The last part of the movie is actually what happened in the days before the dead girl was found.
SPOILERS: When the mother meets the old roommate of her daughter, she finds out that there is a child, a cute blond granddaughter. She takes the girl with her, presumably to raise her. She finds out that her daughter had left because her stepfather was sexually abusing her, got herself into prostitution, and on the day she died was going to visit her daughter for her third birthday. The motorcycle she had borrowed had died on the side of the road at night, be got a ride with a guy who turned out to be a serial killer.
Toni Collette is Arden, with little self-confidence and taking care of her very difficult mother, the veteran of 1950s movies, Piper Laurie as Arden's Mother. Arden is wandering in a field behind the house and comes upon a body, the "Dead Girl" of the movie's title.
After that the police get involved, and we begin to be introduced to the various other characters who we eventually have a connection with the dead girl. One of those is forensic technician Rose Byrne as Leah, who thinks the dead girl might be her sister who went missing some years back. Leah is still depressed over not finding resolution to her sister's disappearance.
Brittany Murphy turns out to be the dead girl and her mother finally realizes that. She had had a falling out some years before and had left home. The last part of the movie is actually what happened in the days before the dead girl was found.
SPOILERS: When the mother meets the old roommate of her daughter, she finds out that there is a child, a cute blond granddaughter. She takes the girl with her, presumably to raise her. She finds out that her daughter had left because her stepfather was sexually abusing her, got herself into prostitution, and on the day she died was going to visit her daughter for her third birthday. The motorcycle she had borrowed had died on the side of the road at night, be got a ride with a guy who turned out to be a serial killer.