Speak (film)

Speak
Film poster
Directed by Jessica Sharzer
Produced by
  • Fred Berner
  • Matthew Myers
  • Annie Young Frisbie
  • Jessica Sharzer
Screenplay by
  • Jessica Sharzer
  • Annie Young Frisbie
Based on Speak
by Laurie Halse Anderson
Starring
Music by Christopher Libertino
Cinematography Andrij Parekh
Edited by
  • Mark Bennett
  • Billy Hopkins
Distributed by Showtime Networks Inc.
Release date
  • January 20, 2004 (2004-01-20)
Running time
 92 minutes
Country United States
Language English

Speak is a 2004 American independent coming-of-age teen drama film based on the award-winning 1999 novel of the same name by Laurie Halse Anderson. It stars Kristen Stewart as Melinda Sordino, a high school freshman who practically stops talking after a senior student rapes her. The film is told through Melinda's eyes and is wrought with her sardonic humor and blunt honesty. It was broadcast on Showtime and Lifetime in 2005 after premiering at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004.[1]

Plot

Fourteen-year-old Melinda Sordino begins her freshman year in high school and struggles on the first day. She doesn't have any friends to hang out with, and appears awkward and uncomfortable when speaking to others. Throughout the day, she is made fun of by several students, repeatedly called a "squealer". A series of flashbacks reveal that she called the police to a house party during the previous summer. Her actual reason for calling 9-1-1 was that she'd been raped by a senior student at the party, Andy Evans, but her trauma prevented her from reporting the rape over the telephone or when the police arrived.

When her parents see her report card, they prompt Melinda to see a teacher nicknamed Mr. Neck, who tells her to write an essay on any history topic. After refusing to read her paper aloud to her class, she is sent to the principal's office. Melinda is nice to a new student named Heather Billings, who claims to be Melinda's "friend", but Heather soon abandons Melinda when the chance for social advancement arises. The only other student with whom Melinda has a positive experience is her lab partner, Dave Petrakis, who has successfully managed to avoid affiliating himself with a clique.

The restoration of Melinda's confidence progresses at a painfully slow rate, with some help from Dave and her art teacher, Mr. Freeman. Her former best friend, Rachel Bruin, starts dating Andy, and Melinda fears that Rachel will suffer the same fate as her. Melinda meets Rachel at the library and tells her the truth about what happened at the party by writing it on paper. Rachel first refuses to believe, thinking that Melinda is lying out of jealousy, and calls her "sick", but comes to realize the truth by confronting Andy. Rachel then avoids Andy and tells other people of what happened at the party. Exposed as a rapist, Andy retaliates against Melinda, cornering her; he tries to force her to tell everybody at school that the incident is false and attempts to rape her again. Melinda struggles and irritates his eyes with turpentine, overpowers him after holding a shard of broken mirror to his neck, threatening to kill him. They are found by Melinda and Rachel's friend Nicole, who, along with other girls from her lacrosse team, help Melinda and trap Andy to prevent further attack. The altercation removes any doubt about what happened at the house party, and the girls who restrain him are outraged by it and tempted to beat him with their sticks. Mr. Neck sees Melinda walking away from the scene and asks what was going on, but Melinda doesn't respond.

On the way back from the hospital after being treated for her injuries, Melinda rolls down the car window and breathes in deeply. She finally finds the strength to tell her mother, who already suspects something awful, the truth about what happened at the party. Although it becomes clear that Melinda will need time to fully recover from her ordeals, this is a significant and empowering event in her life, as she finally finds the courage to speak.

Cast

Production

Producer and screenwriter Annie Young Frisbie read the novel and successfully made a bid to get the rights to a film version. Production took place in Columbus, Ohio because a production partner, Matthew Myers, was relocating there with his wife.

Film production took only 21 days in August 2003. Flooding during an especially heavy summer rain caused filming to be temporarily postponed and during that time author Laurie Halse Anderson visited the set with her daughter. Anderson cameos in the film as the lunch lady who gives Melinda the mashed potatoes.

The school scenes for the movie were shot at Eastmoor Academy on the east side of Columbus.

Reception

Although New York Times reviewer Neil Genzlinger praised the work of Stewart and Zahn, he concluded that, overall, the cast was populated with "dismaying caricature[s], so much so that it costs the movie some credibility" and that the film "comes nowhere near capturing the wise, subtle tone of the book."[2]

References

  1. ↑ http://history.sundance.org/films/3013/speak
  2. ↑ Genzlinger, Neil (5 September 2005). "For One Teenager, the Party's Over". New York Times. Retrieved 27 March 2011.
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