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source: Blame

It seems several people are confused by Abigail's limp that goes away. The first scene she did in the beginning of the movie, for the pregnant drama teacher, was from Tennessee Williams " The Glass Menagerie". The character she was portraying, Laura Wingfield, has a limp. She was in character.

Weaving a tale, putting together a story, whatever the terminology or medium, this is an apotheosis of a nice blender drink mixed with a lot of pulp juicy fruits and veggies and all that good stuff that make for a nice blend of fun characters. I just loved how it did not try to force anything down our throats, when it chilled back it was fun, when it pumped it up it was neat, when drama hit the page it was intriguing, and the climacteric was very very interesting all interlarded with super-stylistic witty repartee and an incredible ending that pulsed deeply rooted to its super universal thematic undercurrent. But what I really loved the most is how I expected at some point to go over the top with the style but no, the writing stayed true to the characters, no one got too witty or one idiot suddenly became Einstein, no, it just kept true but incredibly ingenious and all together a fun ride, I would say this is a seminal piece of work that needs to be studied, especially when we delve into teen characters there seems to be some lamo formulaic I'm the bully you are the defunct victim, and you are the obligatory dumb bitch and I am this and that is that and the teacher is this... no, this said, wait a minute, why? Lets just do what feels good and rock the page and Quinn Shephard, (Its really hard to believe that a thespian can work the page like this but give props where props are due) This was remarkable and should be lauded... high praises, for teen flicks should be fun and throwing caution to the wind and terrific and attempting to entertain in a really fun way, there are so many ancillary characters that can add different flavors, and this attempted something new and it came out with flying colors , excellent on a universal level , lets hope Quinn will lend her pen to many many more scripts in the future god knows screenplays can afford to be way more fun and interesting! (The scene with the teacher and the student without dialogue and only music, well I have never seen anything like that - and it was truly what film is all about, using camera, music, the thespians in a way to produce art at its finest!)

I just read someones' review that clearly did not like it and found it disconnected. I can't help but wonder what kind of movie that person really wanted to see, because it clearly wasn't this one. It is a well connected story which parallels in a fashion, the essence of "The Crucible" as is implied. The young actors are true to the form of teenagers in high school, yes, seen before because teenagers behaviors rarely change. They are, as teenagers are. The drama is well felt as is written too. There is a sub story and a side story within this as well with a few other characters, the other students, the main character, the substitute teacher. Over all, without unraveling it, it is worth the view. I thoroughly enjoyed and the directing was also worth a mention, it was great. I hope all these get other work that shows their talent.

The acting was on point. The characters were all pretty well developed. I thought it was interesting, the idea of a person with a disorder where she takes on the personality of the character she reads about. Unfortunately, that element was explored less as the story progressed. Gradually, it got to where she didn't seem to have any disorder and Abigail's character became her own individual, no longer parroting the character in the book. But then, maybe that was intentional: maybe the point was that her disorder was gradually cured as she found acceptance and friendship in her relationship with Jeffrey. Her relationship with Jeffrey is depicted mostly sympathetically. He's not shown as a one-dimensional monster preying on a hapless schoolgirl. They never do more than kiss anyway, and he's shown as trying to do the right thing: he gets close to her because there's a mutual attraction, he avoids her when he's worried about their relationship being inappropriate, but he gets back with her when he realizes that avoiding her is only hurting both of them. And of course, he turns down the other student who tries to seduce him. I wasn't sure about the ending. Maybe it was meant to be ambiguous? While Melissa was falsely accusing the teacher, it became clear that the things she described were really things that her legal guardian had been doing to her. But then it's not made clear what happens: Does Melissa admit to the police that she was lying about the teacher? Does the teacher end up getting arrested anyway? Does her guardian end up getting arrested? Do Abigail and Jeffrey continue their relationship, or is Jeffrey fired / in jail? Maybe the viewer isn't supposed to know. But I was unsatisfied with not knowing whether or not the police came to realize that the accusations Melissa made against Jeffrey were false and that her guardian was the only actual predator.

This is one of the worst movies I have seen in my life. For all of those people that gave this film anything more than 4 stars, I'm not sure what is wrong with you. There is no action whatsoever, the characters lack any depth and all the plot twists are nothing more than unnoticeable. Whoever wrote the script for this movie must have been under the age of 10. Do not waste your time with this movie. You will thank me later.

Though there were things I liked I was just confused to how the film was set up. Abagail first has a limp but mysteriously that is goes away for no reason. She is hated by her classmates and called different names and yet none of this is ever explained even though the film keeps hinting for some resolution. It just seemed to me there was this whole build up to give her a backstory some meat but at the end of the film the only backstory that was ever explained was to her foe.

I thought this movie was great. It keeps three threads (themes) of teenage development pumping at once. The ending was very moving in a surprising way. The film never went for cheap shots as far as exposing emotion or the complexity of the emotions we share with other people in relationships. It was that complexity and "grey area" of human interactions (not black or white) that I liked best about this film. I hope Ms. Shepard directs more films so we can see more of that.