Cracks

Set at an all-girls boarding school in some isolated part of England during the 1930s, Cracks is a composite of all sorts of movies I love: 1930s English boarding school dramas, psychological thrillers, a metaphysical mystery (maybe, I don't know). It's got elements from Lord of the Flies, Black Narcissus, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, and Basic Instinct. Unfortunately, it's the type of  movie that falls a little too squarely between a sensible, explain-the-psychosis, thriller and something a little more out there. It left me with too many unanswered questions, and not in the good way, a la David Lynch. And Eva Green brought a little too much crazy to her role as a free-wheeling teacher, plus diving coach, who first mesmerizes her students, then ... well, you'll just have to watch it. It really wasn't terrible, just that it was both too silly and not silly enough.