Twiggy

Emmanuelle Millet

BY Lauren TreihaftPublished Sep 23, 2011

What starts out as something akin to a French Juno continues on to be completely devoid of comedy and replete with hopelessness and ignorance.

When the wildly independent Sarah (Christa Théret) discovers she's pregnant after six months and no signs whatsoever, even having her menstrual cycle the previous week, her life quickly spirals out of control. Sarah looses her esteemed position at an art gallery and nearly gets kicked out of her hostel, which is for working people only.

Sarah is lost, alone and unable to have an abortion. However, she vows to give the child up for adoption and basically ignores the fact that she's pregnant for the entirety of the film.

After attempting and failing to find a new job, Sarah has a chance encounter with a young man, with whom she begins a tempestuous relationship. She only reveals that she's pregnant to him very later on and he tries to use this to his advantage to move into a larger dorm at the university.

Unfortunately, the characters and the story are depleted by their lack of originality and development. Though the accidental pregnancy and chaos that become Sarah's life are certainly a tale of misfortune, the emotional impact of the film is barely palpable. Théret's performance is good, but nothing to drive this towards any sort of critical reverence or praise.

The ending provides an indication of optimism after an hour-and-a-half of bad luck, but it isn't enough to redeem the rest of Twiggy.
(Manchester Films)

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