Miller's Girl is already one of the buzzier 2024 new movies in part because its cast is led by rising star Jenna Ortega, but also because of the movie’s controversial subject matter, focusing on a dangerous relationship between a teacher and student. The movie and its characters challenge some of the traditional dynamics of this kind of problematic relationship, which could lead to some questions about the Miller's Girl ending.
That's where we come in, hoping to answer some of the big questions you may have about the movie. Before we dive into specifics about the ending, let's recap the main plot of Miller's Girl (note, we are about to discuss Miller's Girl SPOILERS, so if you have not watched Miller's Girl yet, we suggest you do that first and then come back and read this article later).
Miller's Girl, written and directed by Jade Halley Bartlett, tells the story of Cairo Sweet (Ortega), a high school student who shows incredible promise as a writer, which draws the attention of her teacher Jonathan Miller (Martin Freeman). The two's relationship grows, with Jonathan treating her differently than other students. This includes allowing Cairo to choosing a questionable author to mimic for a midterm assignment as she writes about a teacher-student relationship that is eerily similar to hers and Jonathan's. This finally raises red flags for Jonathan, who finally realizes the danger of what he has done and tries to end it, but Cairo has her own ideas of how their relationship should conclude.
How far do Cairo and Jonathan go in Miller's Girl?
Jonathan completely fails in his role as a teacher by allowing the seeds of an inappropriate relationship to grow with Cairo, but for the first half or more of the movie, he does not cross the line of having a physical relationship with her. That seems to change when he goes to return her cell phone that mistakenly ended up in his bag.
As Jonathan pulls up to Cairo's house with the rain pouring down, Cairo, in a gorgeous evening dress, saunters out to meet him. She asks him to come closer, to which Jonathan says no, telling her instead to come to him. They kiss and the screen cuts to black.
The next thing we see is Cairo alone in her house, writing and contemplating the moment they had. She then sends her midterm to Jonathan, who reads it in his work shed. The story Cairo wrote, while using different names, is clearly inspired by their own relationship, though taken to extremes, including her teacher character having sex with the student character. We see the scene play out in snippets as Jonathan reads Cairo's text. But the question is did this really happen or is it just Cairo's story?
The scene plays out in such a heightened way (even more so than the movie's already heightened tone) that it leads us to believe that this scene is purely Cairo's creation and she and Jonathan did not actually go that far. The kiss they shared does, however, appear to have been real.
What happens with Cairo and Jonathan in Miller's Girl?
After reading her paper, Jonathan chastises Cairo, calling it inappropriate and demanding she rewrite it or he'll fail her. Cairo tells him she was writing what she knows, their mutual attraction, but he fails to acknowledge that. He says he was foolish for trusting she could write in the style, calling her a child. Cairo says he blurred the line of their relationship in real life, to which Jonathan says she is his student, "and that's all," and if she misconstrued something that's her problem.
Cairo then turns on a dime how she sees him and their relationship, calling him a mediocre writer and warning him that if he continues to deny his responsibility in creating the idea of a relationship they had it will destroy him. So she sets her plan into motion, sharing her story with the school's administrators, which eventually brings Jonathan in front of the school board to explain his actions and threaten his career.
However, Cairo does not stop there. When hanging out with her friend Winnie (Gideon Adlon), who for the whole movie has her own flirtation with another teacher, Boris (Bashir Salahudding), though not to the extent that Cairo and Jonathan had. Cairo pressures Winnie, who has been texting Boris, to send him a picture with the two of them making out.
Both Cairo and Jonathan speak with the vice principal, Jonathan is suspended. Boris blames him for not knowing where the line is, while he defends his own position with Winnie by saying he recognizes the line and is sure not to cross it. The situation also wrecks Jonathan's relationship with his wife Beatrice (Dagmara Dominczyk).
While Jonathan deserves everything he gets, Cairo does not see herself as a victim. Talking with Winnie about what is happening to Jonathan, Cairo says "he underestimated me, I overestimated him" and calling the situation an inspiration for her. Winnie thinks Cairo is punishing Jonathan because he wouldn't leave his wife for her, and threatening to testify against Cairo. Cairo says if she does she'll use the photos and texts she has of Winnie and Boris to destroy them both as well. Winnie tells her this isn’t a game, to which Cairo agrees, calling it her "greatest achievement."
She reads a new writing, saying she wanted to experience something new and reached for what Jonathan gave her, but was ultimately made a fool. She wonders if Jonathan will come to realize his own complicity and be changed by it like she has. She describes her youth as being ripped away, but she feels she is shaped into something new — quoting a line from Jonathan's book, "grown from the human ruins of a mad man's love."
Miller's Girl director Bartlett said in an interview with What to Watch that she wrote both Cairo and Jonathan as villains. Jonathan obviously for his inability to realize his position in the relationship, act appropriately around Cairo and then take responsibility for his actions. Cairo, however, admits that she was drawn to the experience as well, and while she did not understand it fully at first, she used and twisted the experience to facilitate her own perceived growth.
Miller's Girl is playing exclusively in US movie theaters.
