Le Anne Dunley (Kim Dickens) arrives home to find her daughter Kelli having oral sex. She send Kelli to stay with her aunt Marie Jones (Jane Kaczmarek). Le Anne and Marie are sisters with differing styles. Marie and her husband Walter have Elizabeth who is around the same age as Kelli and goes to the same school. Elizabeth has possessive boyfriend Mark. Kelli starts to suspect Mark of disturbing behaviors but aunt Marie sees Kelli as the bad seed and Elizabeth as the perfect child. Mark hits Elizabeth but they pass a lie to her parents. Mark get more and more jealous of her male classmate. Cody tries to befriend Kelli but she distrusts guys in general.
This is the classic Lifetime melodrama of abusive boyfriend and abused girlfriend. There are some good adult actors. I'm not familiar with the younger actors except for Joe Dinicol. He's generally pretty good. This is a melodrama without much tension or actual drama. It's paint-by-numbers. Elizabeth's delusions are almost as infuriating as Mark's violence. This is Lifetime at its Lifetimiest.
Plot summary
Marie Jones and Le Anne Dunley are sisters who leaned on each other throughout their life challenges. Marie is married and Le Anne is a single mother. Marie and husband Walter have a 17-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, who has a picture-perfect life with a seemingly equally-wonderful boyfriend named Mark. Le Anne raises her 16-year-old daughter Kelli and struggles to relate to the pressures Kelli is facing with boys, friends, and school. Then Mark and Elizabeth's relationship turns stormy: Mark dominates Elizabeth by calling her constantly and forbidding her to talk to other men. One night she is hospitalized but denies that Mark has put her there. Kelli gets suspicious about the bruises that Elizabeth has sustained. Elizabeth's parents try to intervene in the relationship but it doesn't do any good. Finally, when Elizabeth can no longer take the abuse, she decides to end the relationship, Days later she receives a violent text from him and files a restraining order against him: If Mark violates it, the school will contact the police and he'll be arrested. Can Elizabeth stand up for herself before it's too late?
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Lifetime melodrama
Masterpiece
The movie is about a girl that stays in an abusive relationship because she has no power to leave. Even when she kind of does her abuser stalks her for blood.
The movie is a small budget but great film that is based on true stories of weak girls being unable to leave abusive, toxic relationships or even wanting and enjoying abusive relationships.
It's not relatable to me, yet to many others like abused or currently abused girls can relate and learn from it. Or would they?
The acting is mildly fine. The stalker-abuser did a terrific job in portraying a psycho stalker Ex-boyfriend.
It's a fine lovely film that can be used for social and mental studies.
Verdict: A Movie done well.
I liked it.
When people say this movie was good "for a Lifetime movie" they mean it. There's a lot of substance to that statement since Lifetime network's films are so cookie-cutter that everyone comes back for another piece. But "Reviving Ophelia" was seriously different. The story focuses not only on the girl being abused (and reluctant to reject the relationship) but also a second character who has her own share of troubles, difference being that this one has the clarity to realize that her cousin needs help.
Rebecca Williams is really, really great as Elizabeth (aka "Ophelia"; Shakespeare reference) because of how real she seems. The kind of viewer I am, I get mad at characters who, say, allow themselves to get abused and STILL stay in the relationship; but Williams's portrayal made sense and made me understand what some women endure.
I don't reread books or re-watch movies but for some reason I DVR'd this flick and watched it again. Definitely watch if you're into a drama w/ a solid plot and believable characters/actors.