IN A NUTSHELL:
One of the courses I currently teach at a university is Politics, so I was especially interested in seeing how this story would be told. Already, it has 25 wins and 8 nominations!
The dramatic movie was directed by Michelle Danner, and written by George Kolber, Richard Lasser, and J. Craig Stiles.
THINGS I LIKED:
The terrific cast includes Abigail Breslin, Donald Sutherland, Andy Garcia, Luke Wilson, Emily VanCamp, Enrique Murciano, Mireille Enos, Nolan Gould, Joshua Bowman, Sebastian Quinn, and Ryan Phillippe.
Academy Award-nominated Abigail Breslin did a terrific job in the leading role. We all fell in love with her when she appeared in the 2006 movie Little Miss Sunshine. I first noticed her as the darling little girl in Signs in 2002. I'm so happy for her to land this movie. She successfully portrayed a frightened, young girl and slowly showed subtle degrees of maturity, forgiveness, courage, and even dignity as the years passed after the rape. Well done!
I appreciated the fact that the film was directed by a woman because she was able to sensitively show the various reactions of the crime by the featured women in the story.
There is a clip shown from the movie To Kill a Mockingbird. Great movie.
Young viewers might find it hard to believe that people didn't just easily say the names of male and female genitalia like they do now. I thought the film represented how "good girls" actually behaved back in 1963 and how completely devastating being raped as an 18-year-old virgin it would have been for Trish Weir.
Fun fact: Emily VanCamp and Josh Bowman also starred together in the 2011 film They are now married in real life!
The emotional heft is strong throughout the entire film. Get your tissues ready.
Keep watching during the final rolling credits to see photos of some of the real people involved in the events shown in the movie. We also get to read what happened to them and where they are now. One of the final shots shows that out of 1000 rape cases, only 5 of the rapists are actually convicted. That is so wrong and abhorrent in many ways. The film offers a phone number to call if you or someone you know has been a victim.
Kudos to the team for creating a very accurate 1960s period piece that truly looks and feels spot on.
It was George Kolber, one of the producers, who found Trish Weir and got her permission to tell her side of the story. Wow, she was brave then and is still now.
THINGS I DIDN'T LIKE:
Some of the transitions between scenes were choppy.
There is a strange green screen in Act 1.
This is a heavy film to watch because of the subject matter.
Some viewers might be confused by the non-linear storytelling method, as the timeline jumps around quite a bit.
One thing the movie doesn't address is why a married man would kidnap and rape a young girl. Ernest Mirando deserved to rot in jail. It's so frustrating to watch the courtroom trials. What a filthy scumbag Ernest was.
TIPS FOR PARENTS:
A lot of talk of rape with some dramatization of the events
Two F-bombs
Some blood
.
