​FILM REVIEW: IMITATION GIRL

Black gloop from another dimension takes on the form of a porn star. Okay, not the sort of thing I would queue up to watch, but as the request has come in I can at least spare 90 minutes to take a look. Five minutes in and it’s setting a pace which continues throughout… bloody slow. Fifteen minutes into this it was already dull with an annoying soundtrack. I’d have thought that with the basic idea this would at the very least have been fun, but as a ‘Dread Central Presents’ film I was hoping for some actual dread or maybe even a scare or two, but the story just flips between the imitation girl of the title and the real version of her whilst it seemingly tries to figure out a direction to go in. What this film actually does which hardly any other attempts to is to show an alien’s perspective to what it’s like to land somewhere with no knowledge of anything, so kudos for that.

Fake version’s first day is spent experiencing eating for the first time, soon followed by vomiting, making a friend and learning how to speak Farsi, use a toilet and to prepare a meal. This is stuff which the casual replicated person doesn’t generally do so quickly if at all in movies, generally appearing to instinctively know everything from the get-go. It’s refreshing, but not really elevating this film to anything more than mildly interesting.

The acting is good, in particular the lead actress (Lauren Ashley Carter) playing two roles perfectly well and making the alien one cute in her wonderment. An hour into the film and to be honest I’m struggling with seeing the whole point of it especially as there are some things which just don’t compute. Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but if I found a woman strolling around in a night-dress I’d be more likely to assist her by calling the authorities and trying to make sure she was ok, than taking her home and spending the next couple of days feeding and clothing and fucking her without knowing her name which would make it abuse at the very least. It’s obvious by her actions that she’s a few sandwiches short of a picnic even if she does learn Farsi in an afternoon, so I’m failing to see the logic of the events here as nothing is questioned.

With less than fifteen minutes left to go in this film the Imitation Girl finally sees the real version, well sort of, as she sees her on TV, so off she goes in pursuit of the girl with her face. With no explanation how she does it she manages to find her counterpart, which should give hope to millions of young men out there because if it’s THAT easy to find a specific porn star… Well…

As a best guess I’d say this film is meant to be an introspective art-house piece full of depth and hidden meanings. I can’t say that I found them so well hidden that it failed to speak to me, more the case that what it had to say is something I’ve heard so often before that it’s no longer deep. The porn star version is trying to justify caring about her life and finding her motivation, whereas the alien version is seeing everything as bright and shiny in a world bursting with things to experience. It’s all rather lightweight in handling what is a far more complex set of questions.

This is one of those rare beasts, a film which scored 100% on Rotten Tomatoes which to me would indicate that only the people who loved it bothered to comment. I can’t say it’s bad, it’s fine in its own way, but the dread I was hoping for wasn’t there, no horror either, and the sci-fi element is downplayed as to be almost invisible. It’s one for the intellectuals, and as I am at best a ‘pseud’ I’ll bow out by saying that it’s your money, what you spend it on is your choice, my choice would be for something with more pace and something malevolent bringing the chance of a faster heartbeat.