I must say that this movie, being the first movie I’ve officially watched in 2009, started out my year with me being very uncomfortable. The movie is based around Jasira [Summer Bishil] dealing with her coming of age and with all the changes in her body and her thoughts – i.e. being ridiculously horny – and I was not ready to see this young woman rock her legs till she orgasms while reading some gentleman’s magazines. And when they got around to the rape scene I was totally freaked out because I totally believed that Summer was, at most, fifteen years old and I didn’t want to be arrested for watching any kiddy porn. This discomfort was relieved immediately after watching the movie when I checked the age of the actress and found out she was 20 when the movie was filmed, wow she looks young.

However, the fact that I felt so uncomfortable watching basically the entire movie proves that Alan Ball did a wonderful job writing and directing this movie. I am a big fan of his writings – True Blood, Six Feet Under, and American Beauty – and with this being his theatrical debut as a director I have to say wow. He was able to capture some amazing scenes where he made sure not to show much but we all never feel okay with what we are seeing. And let me assure you, even though Summer does have sex scenes she is never nude on screen.

Aaron Eckhart continues to surprise me movie after movie, I actually had watched The Dark Knight again right before watching this movie. He does well here as Travis, the creepy guy who obsesses about this beautiful young Arab-American teenager. I think the best moment between Eckhart and Bishil on screen has to be when she is interviewing him for her school newspaper. This scene shows us exactly how wrong this relationship is for a naive teenager who honestly doesn’t understand fully what she is doing. While I’m talking about great performances we have to talk about Peter Macdissi as Jasira’s father, Rafit Maroun, who we can vote for worst father of the year. I cringed during only one scene in Lakeview Terrace, but every time I saw this guy in frame I wanted someone to shoot him. I have no problem really with watching some of the worst torture scenes in movies, but whenever it has to do with child abuse I really feel it for the characters and it makes me actually want to stop watching the movie because it makes me hurt inside.

Last but not least Toni Collette makes a great addition to the cast as the concerned neighbour who notices exactly what is going on. Even though she has no real proof, she sees how Travis looks at Jasira and sees how Jasira fears her father. She is the voice of reason and the hero of the movie. She saves Jasira from both these evils and shows Jasira what is really happening, because the truth is that she doesn’t understand that what is being done is wrong. Jasira just assumes that this is how fathers are, and this is how the male- female relationship should be, and at the end when she says it out loud we see the beginning of a healthier life for Jasira. I love especially that Melina Mollison [Toni Collete] never hit her over the head with a huge lecture that went “RAPE IS WRONG”, she allowed Jasira to realize this by herself with a push in the right direction.

Overall I think this movie is solid all around, great story, direction and acting. I loved how it evoked all these feelings from me as I was watching it, and I think that is the mark of a great filmmaker showing us a great film. Everything works here and I can’t wait to see what Alan Ball has coming next for us. However, this is one of those movies I don’t really want to see more than once so I suggest that you rent it to test it out before you add it to your collection.

IMDB says 7.4/10

Rotten Tomatoes says 47%

I say 8.0/10