Millennium Films, Nu Image Films, Dark Harbor Stories
Clive Owen, Catherine Keener, Liana Liberato, Jason Clarke, Viola Davis, Noah Emmerich, Brandon Molale, Nicole Forester, Noah Crawford, Chris Henry Coffey
Annie (Liana Liberato) is a teen in a nice suburban family. She’s lonely and she’s a gifted volleyball player. Online she meets a guy Charlie (Chris Henry Coffey) who is a freshman in college on a volleyball scholarship. Annie finds her new friend is a perfect match for her, and she spends all her time talking and texting with him. But as the time passes, she finds out that he keeps upping his age and lie after lie unfolds. When he finally insists they meet at the mall, she finds out how old he really is, but because they are so alike, age doesn’t matter. Then Annie and her entire family have to pick up the pieces of her broken life while Annie still wants the defend the guy as misunderstood.
This is a chilling movie. It’s done in good taste, and is not too graphic for teens to watch. I think it’s great for the 16-21 year old crowd to see this and recognize the awful risks there are on the internet. This is not a bizarre occurrence that could only happen one in a million. This is a simple set of circumstances that could easily happen to anyone. We are taught to be polite and respectful, and wicked people can use these tendencies against us and we can easily fall into this trap. This is troubling for parents, and Annie parents did their best to raise their daughter in the best way they could, but when bad things happen, everyone wants to put the blame on themselves, but it’s not very helpful. Rather it’s necessary to get things back on an even keel and move forward, although not as easy as it seems.
I enjoyed this film, but at the same time it made me very uncomfortable just the same. Having just raised a daughter, I understand the problem from the parents side of things, but it’s easy to see how a wonderful child can be lured in very easily and you have to be constantly vigilant. It’s a tough thing to look at, but I think a well done film that gets right to the heart of the matter, and for this reason I give it a great recommendation.
EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog
