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Speak (2004)  
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Directed by:
Jessica Sharzer |
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COUNTRY
USA |
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Genre
Drama |
NORWEGIAN
TITLE
Speak |
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RUNNING
TIME
92
minutes |
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Produced by:
Fred Berner
Matthew Myers
Annie Young Frisbie
Jessica Sharzer |
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Written
by (based on the novel by Laurie Halse Anderson):
Jessica Sharzer
Annie Young Frisbie |
Review
Kristen Stewart gives a
remarkably mature and forceful performance in her first leading role as
a high school junior coping with the aftermath of being raped by a
senior. The film has a familiar early 2000s TV style and depicts what
will today appear as dated group dynamics and mob culture, making it a
fascinating study in retrospect. But there's also an unquestionable
timelessness to the lead character's experiences and her processing of
them; you feel her anguish and depression but also her sardonic distance
to it all. The balance with which the trauma is portrayed by director
Jessica Sharzer is no small feat. And so you can forgive her for
resorting to a few cliched depictions of teachers and classroom dynamics. With Steve Zahn as an inspirational art teacher and Elizabeth
Perkins and D. B. Sweeney in amusing turns as Stewart's inattentive but
well-meaning parents.
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