An extremely thought-provoking movie that leaves you wanting a sequel - I can't help thinking that this is the film that Baise Moi ought to have been.
While it is easy to see the story as about innocent girls fighting an unpleasant, chauvinistic world, it should be remembered that Nina is the central character, and Lizzy is actually a supporting cypher. It is Nina who we see as a newly orphaned teen, wandering in a fog of repressed grief and rage, depressed and wanting only to be somewhere else - a role Kodja plays masterfully - while Lizzy we are introduced to as an anarchic girl with no past who has taken too many pills and narrowly avoided death.
Nina finds herself handed off by a sympathetic but shallow cousin who simply places her with one of her beauty salon clients to drive to La Rochelle. The lady in question is very obviously a sexual predator, yet Nina is too lost and too innocent to notice. She ends up in the family hotel, and what a family! The laissez-faire father, the monstrous mother, the spoilt and petulant son...
Finally overwhelmed by grief, Nina is dumped by these lovely people at the hospital, where she is consigned to a sanitarium, and here she meets the apparently delightful Lizzy, who is also in recovery.
Soon enough, they 'escape' and rapidly find themselves without friends, family, money, a home... they can't wash, they can't eat, they can't sleep. Every time they ask, they are refused or abused, and every time they try to take instead, they mess up. The end result is the suspense of an inevitable confrontational ending. Yet that is not quite how the film DOES end.
And it isn't quite that simple. Lizzy is, in fact, a psychotic who really ought to have stayed in hospital. Not everyone is horrible - Lizzy's boyfriend is actually a caring kind of guy, who does try to help; there's a distrustful but kind lorry driver, a fatalistic old market stall seller and a self-obsessed affluent do-gooder.
Yet the only people who actually offer charity want something in exchange - and if there is no money, then sex is demanded. Yet perhaps the most harrowing scene in that respect is where the girls simply try to get a shower in a truck stop - the mercenary stares of the clientèle become truly horrifying.
The story of the two girls unfolds as a bad dream, where every door is closed to them in turn. Whatever they try to do, and wherever they go, they seem to end up in the same place. They are, in geographical reality, travelling in small circles, and yet all they really need to do is travel from La Rochelle to Bordeaux.
Meurtrieres is a highly polished movie that succeeds in placing the viewer in the minds of the leads. This is due in part to the wonderfully empathetic direction, but mainly to the outstanding performances from Kodja and Sallette, who really deserve accolades, and hopefully great careers ahead.
