Out of boredom, I watched this movie with my friend over Christmas vacation. It was about as good as I had expected, which wasn't very good.
First of all, our heroine is a seventeen-year-old girl named Taylor Hillridge (played by Osment) who doesn't exactly seem like the kind of person who'd be a victim of vicious bullying. She lives in a gorgeous house, she's attractive and socially adequate in her behavior, and although her parents are divorced, she seems to have a stable home life. Now, if you're going to make a movie about bullying, please create a character who would actually be a candidate for the receiving end of harassment, not one who seems to have everything going for her. That being said, the movie starts with Taylor receiving a laptop for her birthday.Her mother says that she trusts her with her new laptop, but forbids her to go on inappropriate websites. So naturally, she and her friends decide to create accounts on some crappy Facebook knockoff called "Cliquesters." And of course, she sees a comment on a picture of her, written by the school's resident alpha bitch, Lindsay.The comment includes insults such as "Lardo" and "Dogface," names that you'd expect to hear in a fourth grade classroom and not in a high school setting. If you want to create a realistic movie aimed at teenagers, you should probably make sure you know how real teenagers interact. This movie fails almost completely in that aspect.
Moving on, we're soon introduced to Scott, the stereotypical high school jock and Taylor's predictable love interest. And for someone who has such an important role in the plot, he barely gets any real character development. For the convenience of the plot, Scott asks Taylor to the upcoming dance, to which she says yes. Taylor's friend Samantha dislikes the fact that Taylor has a crush on Scott, wanting to "protect" her from a bad hook-up with him in case they eventually get together. The two get in a fight, which leads to Taylor getting kicked out of Samantha's car. Samantha then creates a fake profile on Cliquesters in which she poses as a guy from another school, a plot event so transparent that anybody could figure out what was going on. She friends Taylor with the fake account, and Taylor unknowingly accepts the request while her bestie Samantha is sitting right next to her. Good friend, right?
Then, for some unexplained reason, Taylor's younger brother Eric decides to hack into his sister's account with the help of his friends and posts a defamatory message on her profile. The message reads something along the lines of "Someone should come and spank me." I honestly laughed at this part. But then, in a completely unrealistic fashion, everyone in the school starts to turn on Taylor, posting statuses about her being a slut. Are we supposed to believe that every student in the entire high school is absorbed in the actions of a seemingly average girl? This idea seemed extremely far-fetched. Also, being called a slut is a completely normal thing to expect in high school, and it's nothing to go into a nervous breakdown about. But naturally, even Taylor's friends get caught in the antics of the school and decide that they shouldn't hang around her anymore. Again, Taylor seems to have hit the jackpot with her choice of friends.
After what seems like a week, Taylor is completely distraught over a few untrue comments about her sex life. Everything else in her life seems to be going completely fine, but apparently this is enough to set Taylor off the edge. Ironically, Taylor can't get enough of looking for comments about her on the website, even thought they upset her. And after she reads them, she pouts and slams her laptop closed in a huff as if she wasn't expecting to find them. Okay then...? Anyway, as a "cry for help," she posts a video declaring that she's done with life and decides to commit suicide. Her bestie Samantha sees the video, frantically calls Taylor's mom about it while she's at work, and rushes over to her house. Both Samantha and Ms. Hillridge rush into the house and into the bathroom, and conveniently stop Taylor right before she manages to take a bottle full of pills. Because a seventeen-year-old girl would naturally have issues opening a child-proof lid, amiright?
Taylor is admitted into a mental hospital and is also recommended into group therapy with other bullying victims. And after about another week, she seems perfectly fine again. Let me just say that someone who's truly depressed never "gets over it" in a week. As someone who ACTUALLY suffers from depression because of bullying, this was a slap in the face. Meanwhile, Taylor's mom seeks to pass a law against cyberbullying. Because instead of teaching your daughter coping skills, you should just outlaw those big fat meanies on Pseudo-Facebook.
In the end, it turns out to be the fairytale "all is well" ending. Taylor forgives her bestie Samantha for almost causing her to commit suicide, which is a terrible lesson for anyone to learn. If someone is an outright ass to you to the point that you consider killing yourself, they're not worth your time. Also, in the classic afterschool special fashion, everyone begins to tell Lindsay off, causing her to run out of the cafeteria in embarrassment. Harassing the bully for harassment? What a great lesson!
In the end, this movie painted bullying and depression as something frivolous and trivial, instead of actual highlighting the importance of protecting teens from online harassment. Despite good intentions, the writers of this movie did more harm than good in a mish-mash of unrealistic situations and unintentional comedy.
First of all, our heroine is a seventeen-year-old girl named Taylor Hillridge (played by Osment) who doesn't exactly seem like the kind of person who'd be a victim of vicious bullying. She lives in a gorgeous house, she's attractive and socially adequate in her behavior, and although her parents are divorced, she seems to have a stable home life. Now, if you're going to make a movie about bullying, please create a character who would actually be a candidate for the receiving end of harassment, not one who seems to have everything going for her. That being said, the movie starts with Taylor receiving a laptop for her birthday.Her mother says that she trusts her with her new laptop, but forbids her to go on inappropriate websites. So naturally, she and her friends decide to create accounts on some crappy Facebook knockoff called "Cliquesters." And of course, she sees a comment on a picture of her, written by the school's resident alpha bitch, Lindsay.The comment includes insults such as "Lardo" and "Dogface," names that you'd expect to hear in a fourth grade classroom and not in a high school setting. If you want to create a realistic movie aimed at teenagers, you should probably make sure you know how real teenagers interact. This movie fails almost completely in that aspect.
Moving on, we're soon introduced to Scott, the stereotypical high school jock and Taylor's predictable love interest. And for someone who has such an important role in the plot, he barely gets any real character development. For the convenience of the plot, Scott asks Taylor to the upcoming dance, to which she says yes. Taylor's friend Samantha dislikes the fact that Taylor has a crush on Scott, wanting to "protect" her from a bad hook-up with him in case they eventually get together. The two get in a fight, which leads to Taylor getting kicked out of Samantha's car. Samantha then creates a fake profile on Cliquesters in which she poses as a guy from another school, a plot event so transparent that anybody could figure out what was going on. She friends Taylor with the fake account, and Taylor unknowingly accepts the request while her bestie Samantha is sitting right next to her. Good friend, right?
Then, for some unexplained reason, Taylor's younger brother Eric decides to hack into his sister's account with the help of his friends and posts a defamatory message on her profile. The message reads something along the lines of "Someone should come and spank me." I honestly laughed at this part. But then, in a completely unrealistic fashion, everyone in the school starts to turn on Taylor, posting statuses about her being a slut. Are we supposed to believe that every student in the entire high school is absorbed in the actions of a seemingly average girl? This idea seemed extremely far-fetched. Also, being called a slut is a completely normal thing to expect in high school, and it's nothing to go into a nervous breakdown about. But naturally, even Taylor's friends get caught in the antics of the school and decide that they shouldn't hang around her anymore. Again, Taylor seems to have hit the jackpot with her choice of friends.
After what seems like a week, Taylor is completely distraught over a few untrue comments about her sex life. Everything else in her life seems to be going completely fine, but apparently this is enough to set Taylor off the edge. Ironically, Taylor can't get enough of looking for comments about her on the website, even thought they upset her. And after she reads them, she pouts and slams her laptop closed in a huff as if she wasn't expecting to find them. Okay then...? Anyway, as a "cry for help," she posts a video declaring that she's done with life and decides to commit suicide. Her bestie Samantha sees the video, frantically calls Taylor's mom about it while she's at work, and rushes over to her house. Both Samantha and Ms. Hillridge rush into the house and into the bathroom, and conveniently stop Taylor right before she manages to take a bottle full of pills. Because a seventeen-year-old girl would naturally have issues opening a child-proof lid, amiright?
Taylor is admitted into a mental hospital and is also recommended into group therapy with other bullying victims. And after about another week, she seems perfectly fine again. Let me just say that someone who's truly depressed never "gets over it" in a week. As someone who ACTUALLY suffers from depression because of bullying, this was a slap in the face. Meanwhile, Taylor's mom seeks to pass a law against cyberbullying. Because instead of teaching your daughter coping skills, you should just outlaw those big fat meanies on Pseudo-Facebook.
In the end, it turns out to be the fairytale "all is well" ending. Taylor forgives her bestie Samantha for almost causing her to commit suicide, which is a terrible lesson for anyone to learn. If someone is an outright ass to you to the point that you consider killing yourself, they're not worth your time. Also, in the classic afterschool special fashion, everyone begins to tell Lindsay off, causing her to run out of the cafeteria in embarrassment. Harassing the bully for harassment? What a great lesson!
In the end, this movie painted bullying and depression as something frivolous and trivial, instead of actual highlighting the importance of protecting teens from online harassment. Despite good intentions, the writers of this movie did more harm than good in a mish-mash of unrealistic situations and unintentional comedy.