The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie meets Lord of the Flies in Cracks, the debut feature film from director Jordan Scott, daughter of Ridley and niece of Tony, both of whom executive produced Cracks. With such esteemed cinematic royalty linked to the film, expectations are sure to be high for Cracks. Scott's first foray into full length features proves her to be a capable artist in her own right, offering a visually stunning landscape filled with reverence, jealousy and forbidden sexual desire in a narrative that is enjoyable, if not entirely enthralling.
Set in an upper class boarding school on an island somewhere in the UK, Cracks is sensual drama focusing on a group of teenage school girls isolated from all society except for that of one another, and of their glamourous and exuberant teacher, Miss G (Eva Green). The film centres around the school diving team, captained by bossy but popular Di Radcliffe (Juno Temple), who idolise their beloved Miss G, an ex-pupil of the school herself. Miss G offers the girls escapism from their otherwise monotonous existence with her tales of adventure and idealistic proclamations.
The power structure of the school shifts with the arrival of Fatimma (María Valverde), a Spanish aristocrat who is sent to the school by her father as a punishment for a hinted at relationship with a man of lesser wealth. Fatimma's arrival represents for some of the girls the hope of the outside world, for others, the fear of it. Di is immediately jealous of Fatimma, and sensing this, the other girls gang up on her, resulting in a strong testament to the brutality of mob mentality. Miss G attempts to take Fatimma under her wing, believing, as she tells Fatimma, that she is “not like the other girls”. As Miss G's interest in Fatimma becomes increasingly sinister, she quickly shifts from a Miss Brodie-like role model to something far more dark and disturbing.
The performances of the three leads are strong, especially that of Juno Temple, whose character Di we are capable of feeling compassion for despite some of her bitchier moments. Eva Green plays Miss G with an instantly likeable energy and fervour, before unravelling this appearance to show the inner workings and fears of her character. The downfall of Green's performance is that she does not effectively find a way to reconcile the two elements of Miss G's character, so that we are left with a fairly black and white view of her actions, making it impossible to empathise with them.
The power of Cracks lies in the fact that it initially appears to possess a typical coming of age narrative with an emphasis on sexual awakening. Although the darker turn that the film later takes is hinted at throughout, the innocence and ease with which Scott tells the story makes the sudden encroachment of evil all the more disturbing, even if the story itself is not entirely original—jealousy and infatuation placed in a school type environment do not often signify happy endings.
Ultimately, Cracks is an impressive first film which works well on the levels that it sets out for itself. Perhaps these levels could have been stretched further to make produce a more original narrative, but the result is still engrossing and undeniably beautiful, and above all Scott presents a strong sense of the world of the school and its pupils. Cracks is a confident and assured debut feature, and surely a signifier that strong films can be expected from Jordan Scott in the future.
Review by Libby Waite