The essentially horrifying tale of a damaged teenybopper is given an airy, counterintuitive touch that doesn’t quite jell by veteran filmmaker Léa Pool.

Holding everything together is a fantastic Sophie Nélisse, dressed like Jodie Foster in 1975 and flouncing through the film with the right degree of hormonal volatility while she inflicts herself on a too-kind 29-year-old chef played by the likeable Jean-Simon Leduc. A sugary, gum-snapping vibe is your cue that Nélisse’s Aicha is the unreliable narrator here, which helps to square the bafflingly unwise behaviour of the adults in her life—and the way a key trauma is presented—but which also muddles the inevitably tragic ending. It’s still worth your time, especially with its central performance, but in wanting to incite the viewer, Worst Case doesn’t quite build its best case.