I think that this movie would have gotten the highest rating from me if it wasn't so painful to watch after moving to San Diego from Portland two years ago and only finally feeling that I have a real friend locally a month ago. However, I voted it as high as I did because it really sucks you into the movie. The reason it was so painful is that as a person with undiagnosed Asperger's, but one who recognizes most of the symptoms of social alienation and ineptness within myself, and I see the main character Melanie having a psychological condition of something like that and can see myself falling into her trap, if I let myself.
One viewer suggested she is a sociopath while railing against people like her for being stalkerish. However, beyond empathy - I feel nothing but sympathy for Melanie and her obviously malformed coping mechanisms for extreme isolation which I could see leading one to eventually go down that road in desperation. She and the Science Teacher coworker would have made a good match if only he had not come on so strong (like she does later with her "friend") and she would have seen that he was actually a good person and if she simply looked beyond his baldness and personality flaws. However, that is the problem with being socially inept, it is almost harder to be friends with other socially inept people who are most likely to sympathize with you. The fact she has no one to go to on break, friends or family, indicates she has always been very hard to get along with for any person, including her parents. However, it is disappointing to see no one tries too hard to really get to know or intervene and in the end she likewise never really opens up, escapes and takes the easy way out, a thought I frequently have to fight against when things seem to be too tough, instead of facing her problems in an honest manner.
I would say this is a very good film for someone who wants to understand how a un-neurotypical mind works but it might be a little too much for those un-neurotypicals who struggle like this every day to some degree, unless they can learn something from it without becoming too depressed from watching their own struggles on screen. It really is a perfect storm of malformed psychological intensity causing maximum damage in the protagonist's life.
Regardless, it made me think about things like no other film ever has and viewing it resulted in my first film review so that I could understand the film and my reactions to it better.
One viewer suggested she is a sociopath while railing against people like her for being stalkerish. However, beyond empathy - I feel nothing but sympathy for Melanie and her obviously malformed coping mechanisms for extreme isolation which I could see leading one to eventually go down that road in desperation. She and the Science Teacher coworker would have made a good match if only he had not come on so strong (like she does later with her "friend") and she would have seen that he was actually a good person and if she simply looked beyond his baldness and personality flaws. However, that is the problem with being socially inept, it is almost harder to be friends with other socially inept people who are most likely to sympathize with you. The fact she has no one to go to on break, friends or family, indicates she has always been very hard to get along with for any person, including her parents. However, it is disappointing to see no one tries too hard to really get to know or intervene and in the end she likewise never really opens up, escapes and takes the easy way out, a thought I frequently have to fight against when things seem to be too tough, instead of facing her problems in an honest manner.
I would say this is a very good film for someone who wants to understand how a un-neurotypical mind works but it might be a little too much for those un-neurotypicals who struggle like this every day to some degree, unless they can learn something from it without becoming too depressed from watching their own struggles on screen. It really is a perfect storm of malformed psychological intensity causing maximum damage in the protagonist's life.
Regardless, it made me think about things like no other film ever has and viewing it resulted in my first film review so that I could understand the film and my reactions to it better.
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