Miller’s Girl ★★½

EVEN the talents of Jenna Ortega can’t lift Miller’s Girl to any great heights.

This drama, written and directed by Jade Halley Bartlett, also features a mostly miscast Martin Freeman as a teacher who has a relationship with one of his students.

Bartlett’s script was apparently much in demand and may be a serious attempt to examine a complicated human relationship.

But something has been lost from page to screen and the film’s marketing suggested we should all be more interested in the promise of Ortega filming controversial sex scenes.

Neither of these things happen – the serious drama or controversial sex scenes – and the film largely limps along through a Southern gothic setting and approach that fails to deliver anything of consequence.

There is one scene during which the two leads generate some semblance of what the story purports to be about, but for most of the running time it’s a pretty turgid affair.

Ortega’s character is also not served well by an ending that doesn’t ring true.

Watched on Apple TV.