Blue Car has a firm grip on its lead character – a troubled high-school English student, played with spot-on sullenness by Agnes Bruckner – but it isn’t quite sure how to handle the rest of its players. The movie is an ensemble piece when its true calling is to be a character study. This is most problematic when it comes to the relationship between the girl and her supportive poetry teacher (David Strathairn). As their ties become a bit too close for anyone’s comfort, writer-director Karen Moncrieff paints an exacting portrait of the emotional turmoil suffered by her young lead, only to leave Strathairn’s possible predator frustratingly out of focus.
