Kyle Smith

Kyle Smith

Movies

‘God Help the Girl’ disappoints with thin plot

The gorgeous heartache of songs by the group Belle and Sebastian gives “God Help the Girl” its dreamy appeal, but thanks to a poky story line it essentially amounts to a series of music videos.

Emily Browning, the “Sucker Punch” star, is beyond enchanting as a depressed anorexic who busts out of a mental hospital in Glasgow and forms a band with a rich girl (Hannah Murray) and her nerdy music teacher (Olly Alexander).

The trio romp around town singing B&S songs and new compositions by the band’s founder and the film’s writer-director Stuart Murdoch, who recaptures some of the spirit of those touchingly earnest French musicals of the 1960s.

The central romantic dilemma, though, is far too weak to sustain a movie — the boy seems more like a little brother than a plausible boyfriend for Browning’s otherworldly, intoxicating character.

So despite its considerable charms, “God Help the Girl” eventually goes a bit stale. I would have loved it as a college sophomore, though.