nightroses This film is well made and colouful, with close-ups of facial expressions. It's also sad to watch because rap is very serious and traumatic. Talking is very difficult and things go wrong. The main character is played by Kristen Stewart who finds school difficult. Her grades fall, she's lost her friends, she's picked on and there's a guy at school who raped her in the previous year. She can barely cope with all the school stuff, and then being targetted by one of the teachers giving her low grades. The symbolism in the movie is with trees and it may be her inner strength that she wants to find using art.

alfredsetian402 Wow! I just found out that today, January 20, 2014 is the 10th year anniversary of the release of this fine movie by Showtime. I really love this movie and have watched it numerous times.The actress Kristen Stewart shines in it.The main character is a young teenage girl named Melinda Sordino. Sordino is Italian for " mute," and Melinda can mean, among other things,a Linden tree. Ironically, the quasi "mute" Melinda is the very person doing all the narrating throughout the movie.Many other character's in the movie have similar type names, for example; Heather is a friend that unfriends Melinda because Melinda is too depressed. And Ivy who unfriends her because of a misunderstanding. In fact, Melinda refers to cliques as "clans" which is from the Latin for sprout.And the author Nathaniel Hawthorne is mentioned in her English class and Hawthorne is a hedge bush of the rose family.Hawthorne's book, The Scarlet Letter is mentioned as being full of symbolism.Which this story seems to also be full of.I can't figure out why the author,Laurie Hals Anderson, of Speak uses so many horticultural references.But interestingly enough,right after Melinda is sexually assaulted by Andy,who is a popular teen, Melinda stays in his Jeep Wrangler after he leaves her. She looks through the windshield as she's weeping and sees a large majestic tree. Is the tree a " mute witness" to the crime?" We see the rape in a series of flashbacks by Melinda. Later on, when she begins her freshman year at Merryweather High, her lovable bohemian art teacher, Mr. Freeman, instructs the class to pick a slip of paper out of a damaged globe that will have their year long art project on it. Melinda picks one that has the word " tree." She tries to put it back but Mr Freeman says not to because that is her " destiny."Also, she turns inwards and starts to cut class and hideout in a utility room at her school.And then she, like the trees and shrubs around her, starts to recover after the cold winter and she finally begins to regain her strength and courage. This may explain why the author used the tree as a symbol for Melinda.The story line does not suffer from several plots interweaving like we see so much of but rather all the focus is on this young teen and her nearly year long recovery from her trauma.She befriends a very nice classmate named Dave Petrakis. Perhaps more symbolism here because the name Petrakis refers to a rock or maybe even a bedrock. And he is supportive of her while never really knowing what happened to her.The cast is finely tuned and hums like (fill in your favorite set of wheels). Kudos to the composer Christopher Libertino for a fantastic musical score. His use of a chamber orchestra and piano near the end when Melinda and her mom are driving back home after Melinda was put through another ordeal by Andy, the teen who raped her the previous summer, takes that scene to lofty heights. Happy 10th Year Anniversary, Speak.

hnt_dnl I actually first saw SPEAK (2004) a few years ago right after it came out when NO ONE knew who Kristen Stewart was! My first impression was that I had just seen a provocative film about teen date rape and the young lead actress gave a sterling performance. Having seen it a couple of times since, I'm even more impressed with how good the movie is overall! On the surface, it seems like one of the dime-a-dozen movie-of-the-weeks from YEARS ago, but it is much more than that.I can't help but make a comparison/contrast between this film and THE ACCUSED (the Jodie Foster film from 1988 for which she won her first Oscar). I honestly have always thought that Foster's performance in that movie was heavily overrated and it is a hard film to watch, but for all the wrong reasons with it's by-the-numbers storyline of the victim fighting back, predictable courtroom scenes, and that overdone climactic flashback of the rape itself.SPEAK goes for the less-is-more approach and instead of Stewart's character Melinda Sordino going the histrionic route, she instead hides the fact that she was sexually assaulted and goes into a shell for the better part of a year, only speaking when spoken to (and sometimes not even then!). During this time, Melinda derives ridicule from her former friends and most of the school because the night of the rape at an end-of-summer party, she called the 911, leading to a police raid of the teen party of under aged drinkers, some of whom got busted; but because of Melinda's secrecy about the call, everyone just thinks she's weird and don't know the real reason for her actions.During Melinda's following year in high school, four important relationships develop for Melinda: (1) a new student Heather (fine work by Alison Siko) that befriends her and is completely oblivious to the situation; Heather represents total teen bliss and ignorance and can't even begin to comprehend Melinda's plight, (2) history teacher Mr. Neck (played with stern confidence by Robert John Burke); Neck is the "establishment", uncaring of Melinda's personal turmoil and is all about following the rules, (3) outspoken outsider student Dave (played with aplomb and appeal by Michael Angarano), represents an atypical male teen that is not obsessed with sex or cliques and has drive and ambition, and (4) art teacher Mr. Freeman (Steven Zahn in a typically fine performance); Freeman is the new, young teacher that can related closer to the students than his colleagues; he is the rebel that refuses to conform to societal constraints.Navigating her way through these new relationships as well as dealing with her well-intentioned, yet oblivious parents, a domineering and somewhat selfish mother (excellently portrayed by Elizabeth Perkins) and well-meaning, yet rather clueless father (solid D.B. Sweeney) somehow gives Melinda an inner resolve and strength by year's end. Somehow, SPEAK avoids many clichés and sheds an honest, informative, yet engrossing light into a very sensitive subject. None of the characters come off as clichés.All the more impressive about Stewart's work is that she was actually a TEEN when she did this film. Too bad it went unnoticed by the Academy. Not surprised, though. They wouldn't know a real honest film or performance if it bit them in the butt! She may have played an almost-mute character, but Stewart's work speaks volumes (pardon the pun) about her talent!

Saad Khan SPEAK – CATCH IT ( B- ) The Concept of the movie is quite interesting and unusual. The whole movie proceeds very beautifully and does create the curiosity about "what exactly happened in past to Kristen Stewart's Character". The Flashbacks of the character were nicely incorporated in movie. Though, the second half the movie was little dry plus I wanted to see more of Kristen Stewart & Michael Angarano. Kirsten Stewart did a fantastic job as she does in her every Independent movie. Michael Angarano has few scenes but he Impress me a lot. Eric Lively is Gorgeous as her sister Blake Lively. Though, his role was creepy he did his best being Adorable. Speak showcases quite interesting look into a Teenagers life when some Unfortunate thing happens to them and they can't figure out how to share that with family & friends.