Film doesn't get much better than Alan Moyle's very original "New Waterford Girl". That said, prospective viewers should understand that "New Waterford Girl" withholds much of its pleasure from the first viewing, be prepared to watch it at least three times which is not difficult because it is one of those films with unexpected depth that gets better with each viewing. Even your reaction to the cinematography will change with each viewing as the unremittingly grim visuals (subjects are often framed against gray skies and windswept beaches) which initially make you shiver become increasing beautiful.
The DVD is broken down into 16 scenes, which are more like film segments because each contains several actual scenes. What separates "New Waterford Girl" from most films is how well each of these 16 segments works in isolation. Watch them individually to fully appreciate the perfect direction, shot selection, score, and production design that underlies this wonderful film.
The main character, 15 year old Moonie (Liane Balaban), is one of those freaks of genetics who occasionally spring up in unexpected places, whose comparative intelligence and ambition set them apart from family and peers. She loves her family but has simply outgrown the small Nova Scotia town of New Waterford and dreams of getting out. Once engaged and observant, she now drifts around town with her face in a book, having written off and distanced herself from everyone around her. Boys are attracted to Mooney (plausible since Balaban looks like a cross between Natalie Portman and Winona Rider) but she is focused on getting out rather than on boys. It is a dream part, as Balaban through behavior and voice-over must somehow balance Moonie's generally unpleasant demeanor and too soon maturity with the fragility and vulnerability of a young girl.
Enter new next door neighbor Lou Benzoa (Tara Spencer-Nairn) who has just moved to New Waterford from the Bronx with her mother (Cathy Moriarty). In homage to Moriarty's "Raging Bull" character, Lou's father is a jailed boxer who has taught Lou how to throw a punch. Lou is as extroverted and impulsive as Mooney is defensive and introspective. It is in the Moonie-Lou friendship that Moyle's film transcends the traditional female bonding story. Rather that fall into the trap of having the two girls immediately hit it off, Moonie is resistent. But Lou keeps trying and eventually Moonie comes around.
Lou immediately embraces the small town experience and her fresh perspective on the things that Mooney has stopped noticing begins to subtly change Mooney's feeling about her hometown. An especially beautiful scene involves Mooney joining in as her two sisters (if they look like sisters it is because they are played by actresses who are sisters-nice casting) sing a traditional song around a campfire. Mooney's internal conflict (and increasingly difficult decision) between staying or going is what the film is about but Moyle artfully soft-pedals this dynamic by packaging it around a humorous parallel story about Mooney's scheme to escape from New Waterford.
In this small Irish Catholic town the very mention of the blessed Virgin is enough to make potential sinners stop dead in their tracks. Much of the humor comes from Lou's ability to knock out boys with a sucker punch. The local girls enlist her as an agent of the blessed Virgin who can punish their two-timing boyfriends. In "Times Square" Moyne used a similar contrivance, having the two girls drop television sets from the Times Square rooftops. While both are mildly ridiculous, beneath the surface of each there is considerable food for thought as metaphors for issues raised by the films; in "New Waterford Girl" these include infidelity, sexual awakening, forbidden love, and small-minded parochialism.
But in the final analysis "New Waterford Girl" is transcendent because of the pairing of Balaban and Spencer-Nairm. The two actresses not only hold their own with each other, they are perfect complements and Moyle skillfully uses reaction shots that allow them to enhance each other's performances.
WARNING: Although most of the technical production elements (cinematography, production design, editing) are excellent, the audio (at least on the DVD) is second rate (more accurately second to all). Many lines are a challenge to make out and several are simply unintelligible. I suspect that it was a film production problem and not a DVD issue. While this does not ruin the film it definitely weakens it. The audio deficiency is compounded by the puzzling failure to provide a captioning option; someone should roast in hell for that omission. If ever a DVD needed subtitles this is the one. At least Showtime has provided subtitles in the version they are currently running.
The DVD lacks any useful special features; it has one trailer and a short (rather lame) featurette. Since there are no commentaries and the VHS version (also in widescreen) is considerably cheaper, VHS might be the way to go.
The music is fantastic and it is too bad a CD was not released.
Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.
Image Unavailable
Image not available for
Color:
Color:
-
-
-
- Sorry, this item is not available in
- Image not available
- To view this video download Flash Player
New Waterford Girl
Liane Balaban
(Actor),
Tara Spencer-Nairn
(Actor),
Allan Moyle
(Director)
&
0
more Rated: Format: DVD
Unrated
IMDb6.9/10.0
Additional DVD options | Edition | Discs | Price | New from | Used from |
DVD
March 26, 2002 "Please retry" | — | 1 |
—
| $24.99 | $8.53 |
DVD
"Please retry" | — | — |
—
| — | $5.00 |
Format | NTSC |
Contributor | Krista MacDonald, Cathy Moriarty, Patrick Joyce, Cassie MacDonald, Jennifer Kawaja, Andrew McCarthy, Liane Balaban, Allan Moyle, Ted East, Tara Spencer-Nairn, Kevin Curran, Christopher Zimmer, Darren Keay, Adrien Dixon, Tricia Fish, Nicholas Campbell, Bora Bulajic, Julia Sereny, Mary Walsh See more |
Language | English, French |
Runtime | 1 hour and 37 minutes |
Product Description
Filmed on location in damp, windswept Nova Scotia and set in the 1970s, New Waterford Girl centers around the attempts of Moonie (newcomer Liane Balaban) to flee the constraints of small-town life. The lanky lass would like to be an artist and is e
Product details
- Is Discontinued By Manufacturer : No
- MPAA rating : Unrated (Not Rated)
- Package Dimensions : 7.1 x 5.42 x 0.58 inches; 2.93 Ounces
- Director : Allan Moyle
- Media Format : NTSC
- Run time : 1 hour and 37 minutes
- Actors : Liane Balaban, Tara Spencer-Nairn, Mary Walsh, Nicholas Campbell, Cathy Moriarty
- Subtitles: : English, French
- Producers : Bora Bulajic, Christopher Zimmer, Jennifer Kawaja, Julia Sereny, Ted East
- Language : Unqualified (DTS ES 6.1)
- Studio : ALL
- ASIN : B000065KB6
- Writers : Tricia Fish
- Best Sellers Rank: #62,120 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
- #7,436 in Comedy (Movies & TV)
- Customer Reviews:
Important information
To report an issue with this product or seller, click here.
Customer reviews
4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
36 global ratings
How customer reviews and ratings work
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
Reviewed in the United States on October 27, 2005
Reviewed in the United States on October 25, 2014
The Canadian-distributed Alliance Atlantis DVD of "New Waterford Girl" pictured here (torso shot of pink-sweatered actress Liane Balaban lying on a background of grass) is presented in 1:33 "full-screen". Although this DVD's aspect-ratio is not listed or mentioned in its Amazon ad... it is labeled as "Full-Screen" on the back of the DVD case. Also... although I am led to understand that this film was actually shot as wide-screen, this full-screen distribution has excellent color and sharpness.
BEWARE, however, that this film is also available as an American-distributed DVD from NY-based Wellspring Media... but as is pointed out by another reviewer, that DVD's presentation is a cropped full-screen image that has been additionally cut off by black bars at the top and bottom, so that it LOOKS LIKE a small widescreen image in the center of your 16:9 TV's frame, but actually shows LESS of the film's image than the Alliance Atlantis DVD. The Wellspring Media DVD's aspect-ratio is not labeled on either the case or the disc.
Even worse... the Wellspring Media DVD has horrible color and is BADLY out-of focus. It is literally unwatchable.
Since none of these DVD's reviews definitively clarified these issues, I purchased both of the DVDS, in order to compare them myself... so I am able to verify that the above descriptions are accurate.
BEWARE, however, that this film is also available as an American-distributed DVD from NY-based Wellspring Media... but as is pointed out by another reviewer, that DVD's presentation is a cropped full-screen image that has been additionally cut off by black bars at the top and bottom, so that it LOOKS LIKE a small widescreen image in the center of your 16:9 TV's frame, but actually shows LESS of the film's image than the Alliance Atlantis DVD. The Wellspring Media DVD's aspect-ratio is not labeled on either the case or the disc.
Even worse... the Wellspring Media DVD has horrible color and is BADLY out-of focus. It is literally unwatchable.
Since none of these DVD's reviews definitively clarified these issues, I purchased both of the DVDS, in order to compare them myself... so I am able to verify that the above descriptions are accurate.
Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2020
despite the format this is not widescreen, this is just TV style fullscreen with the top and bottom of the movie frame hacked off.
Would be nice if the owners of the movie would put out a high def widescreen version of this!
Would be nice if the owners of the movie would put out a high def widescreen version of this!
Reviewed in the United States on April 8, 2021
I love this movie! I don't know when I began to watch it, But I always did when it came on. This came perfectly packaged
Reviewed in the United States on February 21, 2007
To me, this is what family is all about. Moonie's mother and father struggle to understand her. She's weird. She's creative. She's an artist. Their little town isn't large enough for her. Moonie's family push her to give up her dreams, like each of them did. That probably was alright for them. Moonie persists and finally her mother "gets it," not that she understands Moonie's artistic nature at all, just that she understands that Moonie needs to live in a larger world. After all is said and done, the most important thing is that Moonie's mother loves her.
Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2014
This is a great Canadian film, The setting so captures the struggle we all face to be authentic. I cry everytime I see the dad make a cake seeing how he doesn't understand her but is determined to love her anyway. SO beautiful. This is a very well written, heart warming and funny film that I highly recommend. If you like this, you will also like Lars and the Real Girl.
Reviewed in the United States on March 27, 2009
A story of the teenage town oddball who just wants to get the hell out of Cape Breton.
I grew up in the 70s in a small Irish/French Catholic town in the Maritimes, and I found the movie's portrayal of the town and its people pretty accurate.
Plus, I think I went to college with one of the editors. Good work, Joyce, if it's you!
I grew up in the 70s in a small Irish/French Catholic town in the Maritimes, and I found the movie's portrayal of the town and its people pretty accurate.
Plus, I think I went to college with one of the editors. Good work, Joyce, if it's you!
Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2012
I had seen "New Waterford Girl" on cable some time ago and wanted a copy to share with others. The production values for the copy I recieved were much different than that of the cable version. The specific issue was the sound quality...background music overrides the dialogue in many critical areas...sounds as if the sound editor thought the movie was only about the music.
Top reviews from other countries
P. Zolantra
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lovely film about a misfit searching for her place in the world.
Reviewed in Canada on August 23, 2013
An indie Canadian film that is entertaining, warm, hilarious, well-written and well acted. Includes some excellent comic performances by Mary Walsh and Nicholas Campbell (who also has some of the best lines in the film). The story follows Mooney (Agnes Marie) Pottie, a fifteen year old eccentric and misfit, as she tries to find a way to get out of the tiny Cape Breton town that is suffocating her.
Carol O. Trainor
5.0 out of 5 stars
My favourite movie
Reviewed in Canada on August 14, 2008
This movie has it all. It smacks of Canadiana, the clothes and language of the 70's for those of us who lived it, the beauty of Cape Breton, the hilarity of a small town where everyone knows everyone, the closeness of a large family, and the music brings back memories of a time of youth and freedom. The quirky personalities of Moonie and her family, of Lou and her mother, and odd shots of people like Bette MacDonald make this a true gem. It's the only movie I watch over and over.
Angela Griffin
5.0 out of 5 stars
Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on August 18, 2018
Great!
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars
Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on December 3, 2017
Love this film.
Top
About this item
Similar
Product information
Questions
Reviews