This post includes a brief plot summary, an analysis, and a review of the film Cracks (2009). Beware of spoilers.
Directed by Jordan Scott, the 2009 drama is based on the 1999 novel of the same name written by Sheila Kohler. The film stars María Valverde as Fiamma Corona, Eva Green as Miss G, and Juno Temple as Di Radfield. Today’s post is solely based on the film, not the novel.
“Cracks” is about a group of girls at boarding school and how the arrival of a new student shakes up their world.
One day, a young aristocrat by the name of Fiamma Corona arrives at the school. The Spanish girl quickly joins the diving team coached by a beloved teacher, Miss G. Fiamma quickly captures everyone’s attention with her beauty and poise.
However, not everyone is happy about Fiamma’s existence, especially Di Radfield, captain of the diving team. The other team members feel the same and start becoming very towards the new girl.
Meanwhile, Miss G is completely “smitten” by Fiamma and tries really hard to befriend her. But Fiamma is not interested at all, not only that, she finds the teacher quite strange for lying about small things such as her worldly adventures.
The more Miss G showed interest in Fiamma, the more the other girls bullied the young aristocrat. Despite the ups and downs between Di’s group and Fiamma, they eventually warm up to each other. To celebrate their new friendship, the girls organize a slumber party. Fiamma drinks a bit too much and passes out.
Nevertheless, the devil is always lurking. Miss G sneaks in and takes Fiamma to her room and sexually assaults the girl. Meanwhile, Di sees the whole thing and mistakes it as a “romantic encounter”.
When Fiamma threatens to expose Miss G for what she did, the teacher decides to manipulate the girls against Fiamma. As expected, the girls are furious and chase Fiamma down. Even when the poor girl hints that Miss G took advantage of her, Di refuses to believe her. All the running triggers an asthma attack in Fiamma, and the girls panic.
Miss G steps in and tells the girls to go look for help. Once she’s alone with Fiamma, the teacher takes the girl’s inhaler away from her. Unable to breathe, Fiamma ends up dying. But Di puts two and two together and realizes who the “bad guy” is.
The girls inform the dean about what really happened, but the school ignores them. Fiamma’s death is covered up, and the board fires Miss G. The ending of “Cracks” shows Di leaving the school to travel and explore the world. Meanwhile, Miss G moves into a small room in the local village.
The film “Cracks” is a captivating tale about female envy, jealousy, and obsession.
Let’s start with Fiamma’s arrival at the school. Without knowing much about her, the girls already hate her. Why? Fiamma is a pretty girl, and she comes from a wealthy family. That alone was enough for them to despise the new girl.
The girls’ hostile attitude towards Fiamma is a reflection of their own insecurities. On an unconscious level, they wished to have what the aristocrat had.
Aside from being beautiful, Fiamma was also a cultured person: she had been in other places and seen the world with her own eyes. The girls, on the other hand, didn’t have any of that. They only knew what the school and Miss G taught them, hence their lack of life experience.
Envy and jealousy are two different “beasts”.
So far, female envy has been the focal point of this discussion. What about female jealousy? By the way, there is a difference between envy and jealousy. The first one is a reaction to lacking something. Negative feelings arise because the other person has what we don’t. However, jealousy is a completely different game. It’s a reaction to the threat of losing something.
A very clear example of jealousy in “Cracks”, is Di’s reaction to Miss G’s behaviour towards Fiamma. Before the arrival of the young aristocrat, Di (captain of the diving team) was Miss G’s favourite student. The moment Miss G started to compliment the new girl for her diving skills, Di became increasingly jealous of Fiamma.
Why does Di react this way? Di is not very happy with someone else taking her spotlight and stealing Miss G’s attention. Although it’s not explicit in the film, what Di feels for Miss G goes beyond admiration. The girl has a romantic crush on the teacher. Therefore, Di sees Fiamma as a threat, because, in her head, she’s going to steal Miss G from her—female jealousy.
Di’s obsession with Miss G is very obvious. The way she reads the events of that night says it all. Instead of seeing Miss G sexually assaulting Fiamma, she interpreted the whole incident as a romantic night between the two. Even when Fiamma says it right to her face about what happened that night, Di still doesn’t believe her. She was in complete denial.
So what made Di change her attitude towards Miss G? Fiamma’s death. After seeing Miss G taking the inhaler away, Di finally understood what was going on. However, it was already too late.
There is a big difference between obsession and love.
What Miss G feels for Fiamma is not love, it’s obsession. That’s why Miss G was trying so hard to befriend the young aristocrat. When Fiamma blatantly rejected the teacher’s advances, that woke up something dark inside of Miss G. She went from being smitten to being obsessed about Fiamma.
After a while, the teacher’s obsession with the young girl takes a twisted turn and culminates in sexual assault. At this point, Miss G is completely out of control. Fiamma knows what she did and threatens to expose her. However, the teacher was not willing to risk her career and give up on her reputation.
In a vicious attempt to silence her victim, Miss G deliberately tells a lie to instigate the girls to attack Fiamma. Despite being an unstable person, Miss G is very aware of the dynamics of that particular group.
The teacher knows that the girls don’t like Fiamma, and she uses that against the young aristocrat. In addition, Miss G knew that she only had to convince Di, who she knew was loyal to her. The other girls were pretty much followers of Miss G and Di. Having said that, Fiamma didn’t stand a chance.
The ending of “Cracks” is tragic and revolting because Fiamma Corona didn’t get any justice for her death.
Miss G is the one who took the inhaler away from Fiamma, which makes her the clear culprit for Fiamma’s death. But was she the only one responsible for the young aristocrat’s death?
If one takes a closer look, Fiamma didn’t get any justice after her death nor when she was alive. The girls were basically a bunch of bullies from day one. Miss G raped Fiamma while she was asleep, and the school refused to be transparent about Fiamma’s death by ruling it as an accident. Having said that, they were all responsible for Fiamma’s death.
Despite showing some signs of regret, were the girls really sorry for Fiamma’s death? Maybe, but at that age, they should have known better. Actually, I don’t believe the girls were truly sorry for beating Fiamma, they knew what they were doing.
As I see it, the girls are upset that Fiamma died as a result of their actions. Now, they have to live with that truth for the rest of their lives. To sum up, they wanted to hurt the young aristocrat, but they had no intentions of killing her.
In the end, the girls do try to report Miss G to the director, which is the one thing they did right during this entire ordeal. However, what the girls did not expect was the corruption in the system.
When they reported what Miss G did, all the school did was fire Miss G and rule Fiamma’s death as an accident. Basically, the school was trying to hush up the entire incident. Why? Boarding schools lose prestige and students if the parents no longer feel safe leaving their kids with them.
Final Thoughts
“Cracks” is definitely not a crowd pleaser. As a matter of fact, many viewers might dislike it because of its tragic and unsatisfying ending. However, I believe that “Cracks” is a good film because it shows how little actions can have dire consequences.
The catty side of female relationships portrayed in “Cracks” felt pretty real. Female envy exists, and it’s a topic that deserves more awareness. What those girls did to Fiamma wasn’t just mean, it was vicious. Di and her gang knew exactly what they were doing. However, they were counting on getting away with it.
After watching “Cracks”, I felt kind of different about boarding schools. Why would parents ever send their children to a foreign place? It might be a good experience for older teenagers, but it seems like a terrible idea for younger children. Bullying exists everywhere, but it’s even harder to cope with a hostile environment when one needs to live, study, and sleep in it. Is a better academic education worth all of that?
By the way, all three of the main ladies did an amazing job. María Valverde was convincing as the young aristocrat, while Juno Temple was brilliant at making the viewer hate her and feel sorry for her character at the same time. Last but not least, Eva Green was excellent as Miss G. She really deceived the audience with her performance, starting off as “alluring Miss G” only to transition and end up as “crazy Miss G”.
The music in “Cracks” is beautiful. Javier Navarrete’s soundtrack definitely set the tone of the film and elevated it up a notch. Somehow, the music in “Cracks” made it even more memorable.
Overall, “Cracks” is a very noteworthy watch. Some might feel that the story is pointless because Fiamma dies and no one does anything about it. However, the highlight of the film is not Fiamma’s death but the journey that led to that fateful event. The young girl’s death exposes greater problems such as abusive teachers, the dark side of boarding schools, and the toxicity of female cliques.
Final Rating: 🍎🍎 (Very Good)
