********* spoiler warning!!!!! ***********************
You can check out my review of this movie. I gave it a 5. Not that I didn't enjoy the movie, but like you said, my personal experience led me into judging this movie on a more realistic ground than as if it is simply a novelty and art piece. It is a rather light and comical attempt at a very very serious subject with characters of serious issues. You would think the boy is a healthy and normal one comparing to the girl, but no! The boy was a nut case as well judging by how he takes verbal and mental abuse with the level of patience and acceptance of a saint, while on the other hand, he's almost turned on by the abuse. He exhibit all the typical symptom of a compulsive obsessive personality, being a stalker and chronicle liar is the least part of it.
Also, there are some other problems about this movie beside the copped out ending. The cover of the box insinuating serious romance between the two (or even sex), while in fact, we are presented with scene after scene of two dysfunctional individuals collide head on in most awkward and potentially dangerous situations. A girl like the one in this movie would not take this boy into her apartment, especially a weird stranger who embarrassed her in front of other people when she checking out porns and then subsequently showed up mysterious in her apartment building and started knocking on her door everyday. Remember, this girl is more introverted, cautious, closed up and skittish than a normal girl due to her background.
I have had the opportunity to date someone like the girl in this movie. To certain extend, the movie is spot on. On the other hand, the movie deviated and compromised quite a bit to make the plot going (though there's not much plot at all).
In the end, the movie suggested that all is forgiven and forgotten and they are capable of falling in love with each other and they did. What a load of cliche which is almost like an insult to itself if the earlier part of the movie can at least pride itself being somewhat original and truthful if nothing else. It would take years of therapy to make girls like her (no offense as she a victim of crime and she has all my sympathy)to be truly able to trust and accept herself and others and eventually be able to truly love someone. And that's just the popular belief. A typical episode would evolve like this: the girl would play a love game like a normal person would. But the tell tell sign of something's definite not right would be that she's more impulsive and clumsy than most of the girls of her age. She appears to be a virgin, (and she would claim that technically, she is a virgin). She lacks experience and comfort of getting close physically to people of opposite sex. Then, when things finally breakthrough and seem to progress along and she finally was able to be very intimate with someone physically, she all of a sudden freaks out and want to retrieve back to her shell. Upon questioning, she would let out a hint of sexual abuse in her young age.
My verdict is that, though the movie was trying to shed some light into dark and sealed off corner of abuse victim's deep psyche, and offer some hope of salvation, people like those are basically damaged for good, beyond repair in terms of forming a normal romantic relationship with other people. On top of that, how can a compulsive obsessive liar/stalker with low self esteem save a girl like that? It's like a having a blind leading a blind.
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