Movie Review on Speak
I chose to review the movie Speak which was released in 2004. The movie was directed by Jessica Sharzer and is based on the novel written by Laurie Halse Anderson in 1999. The independent film stares Kristen Stewart, Steve Zahn, and Michael Angarano. It is a story about a high school freshman dealing with the traumatic experience of being raped. Within her school she is known as a snitch because she called 911 at a house party after she was raped. It was the end of eighth grade and she was sexually assaulted by an older high school boy though when the police arrived the rape was not reported. Many of the students who were still at the party got in trouble for underage drinking she began her ninth year being shunned by most of the school. The main characters name is Melinda or Mel for short. Throughout the movie she deals with her suffering by withdrawing and refusing to speak. She is alone and ignored by all of the people around her except a new student and an art teacher who together help her reclaim herself and her voice.
The boy in the movie who attacked her at the house party intimidates her at school to keep her silenced. He even begins dating Melinda’s ex-best friend and uses the relationship to taunt his victim. The close friends Melinda had before the party moved on to different groups and ignored her obvious pain. Her parents also notice the obvious different in their daughter but are too busy and self consumed to put any real effort in trying to help. The movie and book do a great job of creating the depiction of depression, loneliness, silence, intimidation, and ignorance that so many young girls face in high school. When girls are experiencing troubles they are often pushed to the side and made to feel lesser because our society dictates that females are suppose to be put together and orderly. One of Melinda’s teachers Mr. Neck is definitely a culprit of this as he tries to bully the young student. Her parents don’t seem to really care about what she is going through or don’t realize that her problems are extremely serious. In addition, the school therapist seems to be reciting something out of a textbook and no one seems to be honest in the situation and reaching out to Melinda. That is no one except for the schools new art teacher and a new boy that is Melinda’s lab partner. Her lab partner Dave befriends Melinda and tries to help her in dealing with her teachers and classmates. The art teacher Mr. Freeman sees that his young student is dealing with something significant and opens his room and time to her. They work together on her artistic techniques and he advises her to work out her internal demons through art or some other form of self expression. This relationship enables Melinda to begin to push back begin to deal with her pain, confusion, numbness, and silence. She fears that her friends, family, and school will not believe her if she tells. She fears for her friend who is in a relationship with the boy that assaulted her, she worries about him doing it again. She wonders why he chose her and not someone else hence blaming herself and fearing that there is something about her that is less than others. Melinda internally and externally through her art deals with this pain and fear and by the end of the movie Melinda finally is able to open up about her victimization and trust the people in her life. Watching this movie makes me so angry and makes me realize that there are countless girls who are bearing the burden of victimization alone. The stigmatization and self blaming of rape begins at a very young age and often remains with women throughout their entire lives. For this reason Speak is a hugely important novel and movie and I hope that we all work to break the silence of rape and empower victims of all age, gender, sex, sexual orientation, class, and so on.
Lauie Halse Anderson has written many stories dealing with the tribulations of high school and unveiling the truth of what girls are having to deal with and handle by themselves. This is a truly great story and is inspiring and heart breaking all at once. If anyone is interested Anderson has a new book out entitled Wintergirls which is about young anorexic girls. I heard a story with her on NPR’s show Here and Now which was extremely interesting and is on their pod cast at http://www.hereandnow.org/media-player/?url=http://www.hereandnow.org/2010/06/rundown-630-2/&title=Dying To Be Thin&segment=5&pubdate=2010-06-30.
The boy in the movie who attacked her at the house party intimidates her at school to keep her silenced. He even begins dating Melinda’s ex-best friend and uses the relationship to taunt his victim. The close friends Melinda had before the party moved on to different groups and ignored her obvious pain. Her parents also notice the obvious different in their daughter but are too busy and self consumed to put any real effort in trying to help. The movie and book do a great job of creating the depiction of depression, loneliness, silence, intimidation, and ignorance that so many young girls face in high school. When girls are experiencing troubles they are often pushed to the side and made to feel lesser because our society dictates that females are suppose to be put together and orderly. One of Melinda’s teachers Mr. Neck is definitely a culprit of this as he tries to bully the young student. Her parents don’t seem to really care about what she is going through or don’t realize that her problems are extremely serious. In addition, the school therapist seems to be reciting something out of a textbook and no one seems to be honest in the situation and reaching out to Melinda. That is no one except for the schools new art teacher and a new boy that is Melinda’s lab partner. Her lab partner Dave befriends Melinda and tries to help her in dealing with her teachers and classmates. The art teacher Mr. Freeman sees that his young student is dealing with something significant and opens his room and time to her. They work together on her artistic techniques and he advises her to work out her internal demons through art or some other form of self expression. This relationship enables Melinda to begin to push back begin to deal with her pain, confusion, numbness, and silence. She fears that her friends, family, and school will not believe her if she tells. She fears for her friend who is in a relationship with the boy that assaulted her, she worries about him doing it again. She wonders why he chose her and not someone else hence blaming herself and fearing that there is something about her that is less than others. Melinda internally and externally through her art deals with this pain and fear and by the end of the movie Melinda finally is able to open up about her victimization and trust the people in her life. Watching this movie makes me so angry and makes me realize that there are countless girls who are bearing the burden of victimization alone. The stigmatization and self blaming of rape begins at a very young age and often remains with women throughout their entire lives. For this reason Speak is a hugely important novel and movie and I hope that we all work to break the silence of rape and empower victims of all age, gender, sex, sexual orientation, class, and so on.
Lauie Halse Anderson has written many stories dealing with the tribulations of high school and unveiling the truth of what girls are having to deal with and handle by themselves. This is a truly great story and is inspiring and heart breaking all at once. If anyone is interested Anderson has a new book out entitled Wintergirls which is about young anorexic girls. I heard a story with her on NPR’s show Here and Now which was extremely interesting and is on their pod cast at http://www.hereandnow.org/media-player/?url=http://www.hereandnow.org/2010/06/rundown-630-2/&title=Dying To Be Thin&segment=5&pubdate=2010-06-30.
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