Eugene, a lonely photographer, becomes fixated on a young street prostitute, Josephine, in his rundown neighborhood. She becomes his muse and his photographs could be a way out for both of them – yet is Eugene saving Josephine or is he using her?
“Choir Girl” follows Eugene (Peter Flaherty), a photographer who likes to capture the seedy underbelly of his city. One day, he takes a picture of a teenage prostitute named Josephine (Sarah Timm), and quickly becomes obsessed with her. He is determined to get her out of the life, but has trouble doing so due to Josephine’s pimp, Daddy (Jack Campbell).
First of all, I must comment that Eugene is not a typical protagonist. He has a darker side to him, much like Travis Bickle in “Taxi Driver” and his relationship with Josephine can be described as toxic at best. All that Eugene cares about is getting his photos published. He gets frustrated when a prestigious magazine passes over his photos. His solution is not to try at other magazines, but to gather more disturbing photos until he can convince the editor to run with them. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that the film portrays Eugene as a sympathetic character, but there are very many red flags that seem to be glossed over.
The movie is shot in black and white, which adds to the noir feel the movie is going for, but the story itself feels questionable at times. The acting all around was very wooden and the dialogue did not feel smooth, so it was harder to get invested in the story. Timm is effective enough that you do feel for Josephine, but the way the film uses her is despicable.
Josephine is not the only one being used though. Polly (Krista Vendy) sees Eugene as an opportunity to get herself up the corporate ladder. She knows if she can get Eugene’s photos of Josephine published in the magazine, a lot of media attention will be on the magazine and Josephine’s story thanks to her. Eugene wants to protect Josephine (in a sense), while Polly does not see the harm in exploiting her more and causes a rift between the two.
Eugene believes what he is doing is right, but he still allows so many bad things to happen to Josephine, even though he is trying to get her out of prostitution. Not only is he photographing her as a way to get money and fame, but he still resorts to selling her for sex when her pimp, Daddy, agrees to let Josephine go for a large sum of money.
While “Choir Girl” is edgy and unsparing, it veers into territory that turned me off the film, including an unsavory rape scene in the third act. I will say its portrayal of society is more true than not, but if the film was executed better, it may have its message hit home more. “Choir Girl” is a film that I likely won’t forget, but more because of my distaste for it than anything else. And I will say that I am glad to see that at least some characters did face consequences for their despicable actions.
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