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Cracks
Cracks
Directed by	Jordan Scott
Screenplay by	Ben Court; Caroline Ip; Jordan Scott
Based on	Cracks; by Sheila Kohler
Produced by	Kwesi Dickson; Andrew Lowe; Julie Payne; Rosalie Swedlin; Christine Vachon
Starring	Eva Green ; Juno Temple; María Valverde; Imogen Poots; Sinéad Cusack
Cinematography	John Mathieson
Edited by	Valerio Bonelli
Music by	Javier Navarrete
Production; companies	Scott Free; Industry Entertainment; Killer Films; John Wells Productions; HandMade Films International; Future Films; Légende; StudioCanal; Bord Scannán na hÉireann / Irish Film Board; Element Pictures; Cracks the Film Ltd; Antena 3 Films
Distributed by	StudioCanal (United Kingdom, Ireland, Benelux and France); Optimum Releasing (United Kingdom and Ireland); IFC Films (United States);
Release dates	12 September 2009 (TIFF); 4 December 2009 (United Kingdom and Ireland); 30 December 2009 (France); 18 March 2011 (United States);
Running time	104 minutes
Countries	Ireland; United Kingdom; Spain; United States; France;
Language	English

Cracks is a 2009 independent drama film directed by Jordan Scott, starring Eva Green, Juno Temple, María Valverde and Imogen Poots. It was released theatrically in the United Kingdom and Ireland on 4 December 2009. In the United States, it was released by IFC Films theatrically on 18 March 2011^[5] and premiered on television on Showtime as part of an ongoing pay television broadcast deal with IFC later in the year.^[6]

The film was produced in May 2008, written for the screen by Caroline Ip, Ben Court and Jordan Scott, based on the 1999 novel written by Sheila Kohler. Kwesi Dickson, Andrew Lowe, Julie Payne, Rosalie Swedlin and Christine Vachon were the producers. Ridley and Tony Scott served as executive producers.^[7] The film was mostly filmed in County Wicklow, Ireland.

Plot

Set in the 1930s in a strict elite British boarding school called St Mathilda's, the story centres on a clique of girls who idolise their enigmatic diving instructor, Miss G, who had been a student at the same school where she now works. Di Radfield has a crush on Miss G, and is the firm favourite and ringleader of the girls who share her dormitory. When a beautiful and world wise aristocratic Spanish girl named Fiamma Corona arrives at the school Miss G's focus is shifted away from the other girls. It becomes a triangle: Miss G becomes obsessed with exotic Fiamma. Fiamma is disturbed by Miss G's somewhat overt advances and also openly disgusted by her hypocrisies and deceptions about her past; Di is terribly jealous and makes Fiamma's life hell.

Miss G (who claims to be a world traveller) goes to a nearby parochial town to buy some provisions. She draws the unwanted attention of several locals due to her behavior and clothing. After some local men try to approach her she becomes visibly upset and in a near-panic when she returns to the school. It becomes clear Miss G seems to suffer from severe Agoraphobia whenever she leaves the school. Her tales of exotic adventures merely things she has read about and has in fact rarely left the school since she was a child.

The bullying of Fiamma culminates in Di and her group frog marching her out of the school and telling her to go home. After unsuccessfully trying to phone for help and unable to return to Spain, Fiamma is later picked up by the police and returned to the school.

Di and Fiamma begin to develop a friendship. Fiamma passes out after drinking alcohol at a dorm party, and Miss G takes advantage of the situation to bring her to her own room where she molests her while she is unconscious while telling her fantasies she has of the two of them traveling the world together as lovers. Di witnesses this and flees.

The next morning, Fiamma is visibly upset, and Miss G is equally distressed as she runs around after her. Fiamma is furious with Miss G for what she did to her and implies she will tell others of what she did before storming off into the forest. Di is broody, and eventually lies to the rest of her gang that Fiamma seduced Miss G. Miss G realizes her career may be over and is terrified of being kicked out of the school. She manipulates Di's affection for her into anger. She says that Fiamma will make up lies about her molesting her (even though it was true) and plans to get her kicked out of school.

Di's gang confront Fiamma and this turns ugly as Fiamma declines to answer Di's vicious questions, trying to explain what really happened. She hints at Miss G's lies and character defects. Fiamma runs into the forest as things become more violent as the girls catch up with her and, under Di's leadership, beat her with their sticks and fists. Fiamma has an asthma attack, and the girls stop, terrified. They run to get help, Di runs into Miss G (who had been watching the chase and beating with no attempt to stop it), who says she'll stay with Fiamma, and directs Di to go and get a teacher.

Miss G, now alone with Fiamma, refuses to give Fiamma her inhaler and calmly watches her die. Di returns to the scene first, just in time to see Miss G placing the inhaler in Fiamma's lifeless hand. As others arrive to help Miss G and Di stare at each other as Di realises what has just happened.

Later, Di tells the other girls that Miss G did not help Fiamma as she died, and, united, they confront Miss G. They are powerless to do anything, but they quit the diving team and symbolically turn in their sashes. Di attempts to confess to the headmistress but she refuses to acknowledge the school's culpability, and is more concerned with the school's reputation. She releases Miss G from her duties and declares the incident an unfortunate accident.

The final scene has Di leaving the school to explore the world, as both Fiamma and Miss G had spoken of doing, whilst Miss G relocates to the local village and finds a small room she can stay in. Completely alone Miss G puts her few personal possessions on her bedside table. She puts one item there and then quickly removes it to make room for another item. After that, she counts the items to make sure that there are only five. This is reflects the school rule that only five personal items could be displayed on a night table at one time.^[8]

Cast

Eva Green as Miss "G" Gribben, an institutionalised swimming and diving teacher who claims to be worldly wise but tells students adventure stories lifted from travel books as her own. She has difficulty in coping being outside of the school, even for local trips or inter school competitions.
Juno Temple as Di Radfield
Maria Valverde as Fiamma Coronna, a beautiful widely travelled and well read young Spanish aristocrat who is an excellent diver but is held back physically by asthma.
Imogen Poots as Poppy
Ellie Nunn as Lily
Zoë Carroll as Rosie
Adele McCann as Laurel
Clemmie Dugdale as Fuzzy
Sinéad Cusack as Miss Nieven
Deirdre Donnelly as Miss Lacey

Reception

Cracks received a mixed reception from critics. It has a score of 45% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 51 critic reviews. The site's critical consensus reads: "Atomospheric but not much else, Cracks is a formless film in search of compelling drama."^[9] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 54 out of 100 based on 12 critic reviews.^[5]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Cracks (2009)". British Film Institute. Retrieved 10 March 2024.
^ "StudioCanal takes 'Cracks'". Variety. 3 July 2008. Retrieved 10 March 2024.
^ "Cracks (2011)". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Retrieved 10 March 2024.
^ Gray, Carmen (December 2009). "Cracks". Sight & Sound. Vol. 19, no. 12. p. 50.
^ ^a ^b "Cracks". Metacritic. Retrieved 29 November 2011.
^ "Cracks". Movies on Showtime. Archived from the original on 10 September 2012. Retrieved 29 November 2011.
^ Rechtshaffen, Michael (14 September 2009). "Cracks – Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on 16 September 2009. Retrieved 28 October 2009.
^ Smith, Krista (August 2009). "Dangerous Lessons". Vanity Fair.
^ "Cracks (2009)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved 7 October 2021.