Agreed with the stupid fantasies the girls kept having. I suppose they could have kept it in if they really wanted it, but it should have been done differently (i.e. without the glow around the mother and their silly immature giggling).
That aside, I thought the acting of almost everyone was well done. I thought Ashley's character was unrealistic and badly acted. She took the "spoilt, vulgar, selfish fake friend" far too far and it became unrealistic and looked bad. Abigail is a pretty good actress, but occasionally there were some iffy parts with Georgie. I thought sometimes the girls were acting really well, and then some scenes my reaction was "that's not how someone would react..." and thought their acting or responses were a bit off.
Had some issues...at the beginning half of the film, these seemingly normal but slightly wacky girls were living a "tricky" (but not disastrous) life at home and a really decent one at school. They were getting more popular, one had a boyfriend, the other seemed to really love her mum despite the drunken benders. And then suddenly they want to kill her. They tell their friends like it's no big deal.
I don't know what happened in real life and I'm not sure many people really do, but I just sort of sat there thinking it was all unrealistic and stupid. It would have been more understandable to an audience if we'd seen much more of the abuse, or been told horrific stories about the drunken mother and how she'd neglected them while drunk. In terms of this film making sense on a screen, the idea to kill should have come later, or more violent/drunk scenes earlier.
Additionally, since it was evident Beth had stopped loving her mother but Sandra hadn't, I would have expected a more horrified initial reaction from her. The girls were obviously disturbed, hurt, and not right in real life. But in the film they didn't come across as too abnormal for a couple of teenagers, so it was really out of place and didn't flow well. I understand they didn't engage emotionally until after they'd killed their mother because they clearly didn't 100% think they'd go through with it, and it was a scary "this is real now" situation BUT the lack of a conscious awareness of how serious their conversations were was unrealistic.
There would have been better ways to go about things. Beth suddenly suggesting it to Sandra, then it cutting to the next day at school where Beth is smiling while she badly acts casually telling her friends they'd get money if she died, then Sandra joining in with explaining. Sandra goes from telling her mums boyfriend to never hurt her or go near her again, to laughing at the idea of throwing her down a stairs or setting her on fire? And we're supposed to believe that? Sandra should have brought it up in a rage or emotional fit only being half-serious, Beth should have said that's not a bad idea, Sandra dismissed it saying she was sick/crazy. But then seriously bad events over the next few days with the mother and boyfriend should have resulted in Sandra changing her mind or something when Beth convinces her it's time to give up helping/looking after the mother.
Despite what wikipedia claims about the urging of the friends, I've read some stuff which claimed the friends involved did think it was wrong, but not quite real and they never had the guts to say anything, so helped. Whatever's true, I highly doubt they were so casual and flippant. If my friend said "if I killed my mum I'd get loads of money and be free from her crap", I wouldn't reply with "wow, that's awesome. Let's set up a chat now to talk about ways to kill your mom".
Later on, Sandra was highly disturbed by what she'd done, which is when it became more realistic and believable. But up until pretty much the death of the mother, I wasn't too convinced and thought it was a bit silly.
The good stuff: The violent/drunk scenes when the mum was alive were very good, and after she died was also fairly good. I probably shouldn't say this but the ending was very well done, and almost made me cry... You felt sorry for them.
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