Filmed in rhythmicellipses that introduce characters, settings and scenarios in discrete butcoherent blocks of footage, The Girl bythe Lake has more to offer than beautiful scenery and solid acting. Thepolice commissioner, a dignified and sad-eyed man with troubles of his own, isinitially called to town to find a missing little girl, who turns up with anodd story about Mario, the amiable developmentally disabled man who took her tothe lake and told her a story about the snake who dwells in its depths. Whenthe commissioner visits Mario, he discovers the body of the teenage Anna on theshore, partly covered by Mario's coat. When questioned, Mario mentions that hisembittered, partly paralyzed father hated Anna “because she has long, slimlegs.”
Anna was a starathlete, the baby sitter who calmed the most difficult children, beloved byall. But the commissioner suspects that Anna's father might have been a touchtoo fond of his little girl. And Anna's boyfriend, the village's disaffectedyouth, manages to make himself a prime suspect with his bad attitude. The listof people with dark secrets and no alibis is long.
The Girl by the Lake raises questions about whether we can ever reallyknow the people we are closest to, much less total strangers. The commissioneris always worried about making a mistake that could cost someone many years offreedom, yet he has the confidence to pursue his intuition wherever it leads.Unlike Agent Cooper, however, a dwarf doesn't guide him in his dreams.
