User Reviews

"The Moth Diaries", based on the book by Rachel Klein, tells the story of a sixteen-year-old girl who is returning to boarding school for the year at Brangwyn, a secluded girl's school that was once a grand hotel in its heyday. The girl is Rebecca (Sarah Bolger), and she's still dealing with the trauma of losing her poet father to suicide, so she seems to invest all of her time and emotion into her friendship with fellow student Lucie (Sarah Gadon). It's a new year, Rebecca has her circle of friends, there's a hot new English teacher at school (Scott Speedman), and by all accounts, it seems like it's going to be a great year for her. That is, until Ernessa (Lily Cole) arrives at the school. Tall, dark-haired, and mysteriously brooding, Ernessa seems to have a secret. And when she and Lucie become too close for Rebecca's comfort, she goes a bit mad. Is Rebecca overreacting, or does Ernessa have ulterior motives?

I'm going to be frank here; with Mary Harron (the woman behind "The Notorious Bettie Page" and "American Psycho") penning the screenplay for this and directing it, I expected more and got less. I'll begin by telling you what's wrong with this movie and then end my review on a more positive note with what was done well. The biggest problem with this film is, almost fatally, its overall plot structure. Harron's script is terribly choppy, and the transitions in the film are wooden and seem like filler material. Since the film is based on a book that was written in journal form, Harron opted to use internal dialogue and asides from the Rebecca character, drawn out of her diaries. The problem this creates is that her placement of these asides and "thoughts" as they may be come across as inappropriate and almost cheapen the film to Lifetime status. The poor transitions here kill the plot momentum and also eliminate suspense, which a film like this needs in order to gain investment from its audience.

Secondly, there is the dialogue. It's stiff, boring, and completely uninspired, ala a made-for-TV B-movie. Acting-wise, we've got performances all over the spectrum. Sarah Bolger is competent as our obsessive leading lady, and Sarah Gadon is decent as her object of obsession, but neither are particularly impressive. The incredibly good-looking Scott Speedman is awkward as the English professor whose oh-so-convenient literary insight provides the film's classic vampire arcs, but I think his on screen stiffness is more a fault of the script than his acting ability. The other girls in the film are, well... pretty bad. That's all I'm going to say. So, this brings us to Lily Cole, who plays our vampy new girl; simply put, Cole outshines everybody here. Although her role is nothing new in the horror/vampire genre, her embodiment of this classic character was flawless. She plays up the brooding aspects without becoming hammy, and at times comes across as charming and sweet— just like a vampire. Physically speaking, she's intimidating on screen; the camera-work accentuates her height, and her raven hair and doll-like face add to her character's overall eeriness. In short, she's really, really great in this.

In addition to Cole's performance, I also really enjoyed the visual aspects of the film. Where Harron has failed her script, she's succeeded as a visualist. Her work on "American Psycho" displayed her talent for imagery, and she does a great job in that department here. The Gothic overtones and the atmosphere of the school take center stage through the cinematography, and there are several sequences that do impress- the raining blood scene in the school library is the standout scene in the film; visually disturbing as well as thematically relevant.

I'd also like to point out the very obvious allusions that the film makes, the biggest one being to Carmilla, the classic precursor to the vampire novel, and an inspiration for countless horror films. There are parallels to Dracula as well, and the film stays true to a lot of the classic plot devices of these stories rather than opting for the more modernistic approaches to the subgenre, such as the tweeny aspects we see in the "Twilight" franchise. For that, I congratulate this film for sticking to its guns. In true Gothic fashion, there's a heaping helping of repressed homoeroticism, unexplained deaths, foggy courtyards, anemic young girls, and mysterious trunks in the basement.

Overall, "The Moth Diaries" is as much of a success as it is a failure. The script is weak and unfortunately fairly stagnant in terms of plot momentum. The dialogue is also poorly-written and the acting from the supporting cast is very much TV-movie status. If you can deal with the teenage melodrama, there are appealing visuals and nice Gothic overtones here as well as parallels to the classics, but I'm not sure that's enough to save the film for most people. 5/10.

One of the worst films I've ever had to sit through in a movie theatre. Should have been made for and aimed at children. But it isn't. It's a mess of under-explored plot elements and bad dialogue. Awful writing, awful direction. Disappointing to say the least. There is actually nothing else to say about this movie. Nothing. The relationship between the girls is unbelievable. We're supposed to believe they are the best of friends but the on-screen energy is awful. One particular scene featured one of the girls breaking down and crying. But the actress just looked like her face was in pain, probably because she wasn't really bothered. This movie is set in the modern day and yet all the girls are running around at night in ankle length white night-dresses.

Worst scene: Teacher gets fresh with student all of a sudden. Most people just laughed. It was so ridiculous.

Best scene: The opening moth-animation.

Much better premise than a generic vampire film like twilight.

The remote feeling of the boarding school translates well, as does the dissonant relationship between Rebecca and pretty much everyone else at the school.

The ambiguity of the supernatural element embodied by Lilly Cole in her role as Ernessa leaves the viewer questioning what she is, all the way till the very end. At the end of the film it is indeed up to the viewer to decide that for themselves but you definitely find yourself questioning what kind of supernatural agency you are dealing with. As far as the relationship between the Moths and Ernessa, that seems to be more of a poetic expression than an actual supernatural impetus, at least as far as this viewer is able to interpret. As a fan of TV shows like the X-files I appreciated the mysterious approach to that aspect of the story.

The main gripe I have with this film is it is simply not long enough. Making it feel like an extended pilot episode of an abandoned TV show. A film like this could easily have expanded on its premise for at least 2 hours. But it shares this flaw with many modern films, I just found it frustratingly short. It doesn't even hit the hour and 30 minute mark, the screen credits begin to role out at about an hour and 18 minutes in. Ever have a feeling that a film just ends too quickly? That is the feeling I got from this one. A shame because it could have been amazing. Instead it was just a fairly good but short supernatural suspense/thriller or whatever. Something I may revisit at some point, but not feeling that extreme magnetic pull as with other films of this kind due to its shorter than average length.

In the same vein as Darren Aronofsky's "Black Swan," "The Moth Diaries" is a dark brainteaser – a Gothic psychological thriller that continuously challenges the audience's perception of reality without coming to any definitive conclusions. Here is a film in which we cannot trust most of what we see or hear; we're being toyed with, and whatever deductions we make stem entirely from what we personally bring to the experience. I know this is the case because many scenes are intentionally structured to be interpreted in two ways. That writer/director Mary Harron pulled this off without making it seem mechanical or contrived is something of a great achievement. We're obviously being manipulated, and yet it's done with such passion and cleverness that we find we don't much care.

Adapted from the novel by Rachel Klein, it tells the story of Rebecca (Sarah Bolger), a sixteen-year-old starting a new semester at a very posh all-girls' boarding school, which was a hotel over 100 years ago. Entries in her personal journal, coupled with very brief flashback sequences, reveal a deep personal tragedy, namely the suicide of her father, a published poet. When she first attended the school two years earlier, it was just after his death, and her personal life was still very much a mess. She found solace in Lucie (Sarah Gadon), who has since become her best friend. This semester, Rebecca feels lighter, freer, and generally much happier than she once felt. But things soon change with the arrival of a new student. Here enters Ernessa (Lily Cole), a quiet, dark-haired, pale-skinned young beauty.

Ernessa doesn't seem unpleasant, not at first, although there are certain odd characteristics Rebecca notices. Why is it, for example, that she joins all the girls in the cafeteria yet never eats? She can't be anorexic; physically, she looks like a normal teenage girl. One night, Rebecca wakes up, looks out her open window, and sees Ernessa pacing barefoot on the pavement. Lucie doesn't seem to take notice of any of this. In fact, she's quite taken by Ernessa, who helps Lucie study her German and Greek assignments. Lucie tells Rebecca that she's not giving Ernessa a chance, and that although she has unresolved issues, Ernessa is a nice person once you get to know her. Rebecca doesn't see it the same way. From her perspective, Ernessa is stealing Lucie away from her.

The new English teacher, Mr. Davies (Scott Speedman), is an outspoken admirer of Rebecca's father. He even possesses a first edition of his book of poems. This, combined with his indisputably handsome features, leads to unshakable suspicions on our part, namely that he will cross a line with his students – or, more specifically, with Rebecca. There is one scene that clearly shows something physical, and yet the nature of Rebecca's character soon gets us to wondering if that scene actually took place. But before that happens, he introduces his students to the world of Gothic vampire fiction, which he says all contain sex, blood, and death. From this, Rebecca begins to suspect that Ernessa is herself a vampire. She looks at a group photo from 1907 and sees a figure that, although somewhat blurred, resembles Ernessa a great deal. She begins to smell something rotten emanating from Ernessa's room, although no one else seems to notice it. When Rebecca sees Ernessa walking precariously on the ledge outside her window, it looks as if she reenters by literally passing through the glass without it breaking.

Rebecca's world is repeatedly disrupted by a string deaths and gradual isolation from her friends. Ominous occurrences escalate in frequency. What are we to make of the scene in which Rebecca quite suddenly gets a nosebleed when Ernessa walks into the room ... and Ernessa takes a small taste of Rebecca's blood on her finger? Why does Ernessa's room appear to be filled with thousands of moths, especially since a moth is central to a happy memory Rebecca has of her father? Lucie's health progressively takes a turn for the worse, her energy draining day by day. Could it be that Rebecca is Ernessa's real target? And what about the sudden appearance of a diary from 1907, in which a young woman vividly recalls a suicide?

The one question that's never really answered is whether or not Ernessa is an actual vampire. It's quite possible that Rebecca's obsession with her, along with visions of incidents that have no rational foundation, stems from jealousy and the trauma of her recent loss. In a quietly tense scene, Rebecca toys with a razor blade – which, incidentally, came to be in her possession through unknown means – and wonders aloud if she carries the same "sickness" her father carried. Strange, how a film so untrustworthy in narrative can simultaneously be so intelligent and so absorbing. "The Moth Diaries" is an exercise in game-playing; we may not know what the rules are, or even if there are any rules, but we go along with it regardless out of sheer morbid curiosity.

-- Chris Pandolfi (www.atatheaternearyou.net)

I loved this movie! I feel like many people come into this movie with a set perspective because they see that its about vampires and they automatically associate it with the Twilight saga. However, it is nothing like Twilight or The Vampire Diaries. The movie is more about girls relationships, it really shows the mind of a teenage girl and her daily struggles, along with the overwhelming supernatural theme that carries the movie. The film also has a ambiguous element to it, as you are constantly wondering whether Rebecca is mad or if Ernessa really is a vampire. It has many levels to it, and it's overall a beautiful movie.