Actor David Schwimmer has directed an R-rated film that every 13 year old should see. If some parents are skittish about this they should see it for themselves. It might scare them into reconsidering. With a frank approach, the intense drama deals with sexual predators on the Internet. It understands how teens use new media to communicate. It understands how pedophiles use new media to exploit them.
Annie (Liana Liberato, TRESPASS) is 14. She hasn't had a boyfriend yet and even feels awkward around other girls who talk openly about sex. She meets a boy from California on the Internet named Charlie (Chris Henry Coffey, THE INTERNATIONAL). He plays volleyball like her and really gets her. They text, chat and talk on the phone constantly. At first he says he is 15 then in college then he is a grad student. She asks him why he keeps lying to her and he always has the right answer. When they finally meet, she is brought to tears when it is clear that he is well into his 30s. But he says, "I'm still Charlie."
Their day at the mall ends at his hotel room with her in lingerie he bought for her. He throws himself on her. The next day he doesn't call. She doesn't know what to do. Her best friend is concerned and tells the school counselor. Soon the police are involved. She now has to endure a rape examination, turmoil with her parents, confusion over Charlie and her relationship, the loss of her reputation at school and cyber bullying. The mental rape might be worse than the physical one.
Her parents Will and Lynn are played by Clive Owen (CLOSER) and Catherine Keener (BEING JOHN MALKOVICH). Will has a much harder time coping with the assault than Lynn. Imagined images of what went on in the hotel room plague his brain. He ignores the warnings of FBI agent Doug Tate (Jason Clarke, RABBIT-PROOF FENCE) to let them do their job and launches his own investigation. To him now, there are pedophiles lurking around every corner of their neighborhood.
While the elements involving Annie are done with nuance, the ones with Will lend themselves more to melodrama. That said Owen gives one of his best performances as a father paranoid about his daughter's safety and torn in how he feels about how she could have ever gotten into the situation in the first place. Ironically, he works for an advertising agency that puts out sexualized ads of teens for apparel companies. Kenner's Lynn is more emotionally supportive and tries to understand the conflicting feelings of her daughter. But Annie will only open up to her counselor Gail Friedman (Viola Davis, THE HELP), whose experience with these matters makes her come off less judgmental.
Liberato is a real talent who gives a layered performance. She never once comes off as a teen who is too self-aware or too naïve. She is still at the age when your first love is of course your soul mate and nothing will stand in the way of true love. It's devastating to watch her character come to the realization that everything that she has trusted to be true is all a lie. I haven't heard any Oscar buzz for her performance, but she certainly deserves to be there.
Schwimmer, along with writers Andy Bellin and Robert Festinger, avoid a typical happy ending. The haunting prologue makes a big impact. While story ends at a low point, there is a hint of hope. An understanding that trust can be rebuilt.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
