Girl In Progress DVD Review

4 stars for this highly entertaining coming-of-age comedy.

Girl In Progress is written by Hiram Martinez (Four Dead Batteries) and directed by Patricia Riggen (Under the Same Moon, Lemonade Mouth).

It tells the story of a young girl Ansiedad (Cierra Ramirez – The Fosters, The Secret Life of the American Teenager), who is having a hard time of it being raised by her mother Grace (Eva Mendes – Hitch, 2 Fast 2 Furious).

Grace is a single mother who is very fond of dating and who moves around from city to city each time a relationship ends looking for the next one and dragging Ansiedad along with her.

She is currently juggling two jobs and seeing a married gynecologist called Dr Harford (Matthew Modine – The Dark Knight Rises, Full Metal Jacket), who makes extravagant claims about leaving his wife but doesn’t seem to mean it. She works at Emile’s Crab Shack with Mission Impossible (Eugenio Derbez – The Book Of Life, Jack and Jill), who is a friend of Ansiedad and has a soft spot for Grace.

Ansiedad is fed up of being the adult in the relationship, doing all the cleaning and looking after her mother, who refuses to grow up. After a lesson at school with her English teacher Ms. Armstrong (Patricia Arquette – Stigmata, Medium), she decides to write herself a coming-of-age story and live it in order to fast track herself into adulthood.

With the help of her best friend Tavita (Raini Rodriguez – Prom, Austin and Ally), she formulates a plan and sets her schedule to becoming an adult. Will anyone realise what is happening and be able to help her before it’s too late?

Girl In Progress is a very enjoyable film, full of humour and with plenty of laughs, but also lots of tender and moving moments. There is a very definite moral to the story too, that you would have to be blind to miss. The script is very well written and it’s a great idea for a story, with excellent acting performances all round.

This is well worth a watch and would be a good addition to any DVD collection.

“Hi! I need a Grandma. I was thinking someone wheelchair bound that I could share poignant memories with and tell secrets to. Someone who’s a good candidate for dying.”

Girl In Progress is available to buy on DVD from 23rd March 2015.