Some 14 year olds look 12, and some look like they could be 18. To me she definitely looked like a teenager--and until we found out her age in the movie I was assuming she was meant to be 15 or 16.
I understand what you are saying: you were seeing "childish" behaviors from someone who did not look to you like a child and that made the movie less believable.
I can only say that (1) girls in their teens can look either much older or much younger than their actual age and (2) victims of sexual abuse (or other abuses) can sometimes behave in ways that seem very immature for their actual age (thumbsucking, bedwetting, talking in a "baby" voice, etc). As soon as I saw the way her character pulled her hands inside of her sleeves, I knew that something was up.
What was important in the movie was not the girl's age--it was her level of maturity in an emotional and mental sense. I think that the story still works whether she's supposed to be 14, 12, or even 18. Even if you set aside her age, this is a girl whose father has recently died and whose mother is suffering from either mental illness, drug addiction, or both. She is in an incredibly vulnerable position, and from that point of view all of her actions and reactions to things made sense to me.
reply
share