Miller's Girl: Jenna Ortega & Martin Freeman's Controversial Movie Has Critics United

"Miller's Girl" stars Netflix's Wednesday Addams actor Jenna Ortega as an 18-year-old high school student named Cairo Sweet. The film revolves around the prospect of a romantic affair between her and a significantly older creative writing teacher named Jonathan Miller, played by Martin Freeman. Unsurprisingly, Freeman being 31 years older than Ortega sparked a "Miller's Girl" age controversy over the fact that this disparity might make for genuinely uncomfortable viewing. In reviews published before the movie's theatrical premiere on January 26, the prevailing sentiment toward the project is largely negative, reinforcing its doubters' initial trepidation.

In his review for Variety, for example, Todd Gilchrist praised Ortega and Freeman and even credited the film for its self-awareness but determined that its ambition is never quite realized. "'Miller's Girl' delivers a tale whose transgressions are stylish but disappointingly predictable, one written with skillful knowledge of form but not the maturity to implement it with originality," he wrote.

"Miller's Girl" garnered a 21% critical aggregate score on Rotten Tomatoes the day before its release, courtesy of similar reviews.

Author Sharai Bohannon reviewed "Miller's Girl" for Dread Central, rating it 2 stars out of a possible 5. While she qualified her assessment with support for first-time director Jade Halley Bartlett, whom she thinks deserves another chance in Hollywood, she too found the film wholly ineffective. "There are some cool ideas in the premise of this film that never really go anywhere. It is difficult to agree or disagree with the movie's message because it never really commits to a side," she wrote.

For The Associated Press, Mark Kennedy characterized the film as uninteresting despite its attention-grabbing story. "This movie might be less fun than taking the SATs," he wrote.

In his negative review published by The Seattle Times, author Chase Hutchinson felt that the film leans too hard on the fact its age gap relationship will provoke strong reactions, stopping short of contributing to the discussion it's meant to open. "For all the ways the film flirts with its thorny topic, proving to be controversial in only a superficial sense, the story is one not even the most inexperienced writer would praise," he wrote.

So, while "Miller's Girl" may know that its core character dynamic is inappropriate, the consensus among critics seems to be that this self-awareness stops short of meaningful engagement with its challenging subject matter.