Warning: This movie is pretty difficult stuff to watch...particularly to folks who have themselves been victims of abuse. The story easily could make any people uncomfortable or worse...so keep this in mind before watching "Something Wild".

Writer/director Jack Garfein featured his wife, Caroll Baker, in the lead in this story. It begins with Mary Ann (Baker) coming home one evening when she is assaulted by some pervert. She doesn't tell anyone but instead comes home, bathes and tries to go about her life. But she's deeply traumatized and soon she disappears from her mother's home. Now, she's on her own and living in a dumpy apartment. After a while, memories of the assault are so severe that she tries to kill herself but is rescued by Mike (Ralph Meeker). At first he seems like a great guy...her benefactor. However, it soon becomes apparent he's a weirdo and had god knows what in store for her, as he locks her in his apartment and won't let her go.

This movie is life two disparate stories stuck together. The first, about the assault, is very much ahead of its time and daring...and a very good portrayal of the trauma and post-traumatic reactions. Carroll Baker is marvelous in this. The other part is about the weird guy...and his overwrought acting which left me confused and annoyed. And, while I generally love Ralph Meeker, here he's pretty terrible when he goes through his odd spasms on camera....see the film and you'll see what I mean. While I am sure Garfein was going for something profound, the overall film just comes off as goofy and strange. An interesting movie to watch because of its subject matter and a great film for aspiring writers and directors as there is minimal dialog in the film....no easy thing to achieve...but also a film that will leave many film viewers confused and baffled...especially since the film seems to romanticize Stockholm Syndrome!

Something Wild starts off very well. Those minutes in the beginning with no dialog showing the aftermath of the attack on Carroll Baker are very realistically done. But when Baker leaves home the story goes off into the unbelievable.

Carroll is a young college student who is attacked and raped on her way home one night. She tells no one about the attack and you take one look at her stepfather and mother and you can see why. Charles Watts is something of a doofus and mother Mildred Dunnock is one of those perpetually sick women who really enjoy being miserable and making others around the same.

Note the scene where Baker carefully destroys all the clothes she wore during the attack and also how she carefully bathes to get rid of every trace her attacker might have left. What you're seeing there is the reason many women do not report rapes, even with the most insightful and sensitive of sex crimes detectives you are reliving horrific events that you want to put out of your mind.

Unfortunately after that the film goes haywire. The man who Carroll eventually takes up, Ralph Meeker, an average Joe, a garage mechanic is just a bit too good to be true. I couldn't see the rest of the story myself at all.

Look for a nice performance by Jean Stapleton as Carroll's rather slatternly next door neighbor in a rooming-house Carroll moves in after leaving home abruptly. It's as far from Edith Bunker as you can get.

Dealing with rape trauma, the film was squarely on the money, but the rest of it I just couldn't buy.

Mary Ann Robinson (Carroll Baker) lives in the Bronx with her domineering mother (Mildred Dunnock) and stepfather. One night walking home from the train, she is raped in a park. She doesn't tell anyone and it takes a toll on her. She abandons her life and runs away renting a rundown apartment. Shirley Johnson (Jean Stapleton) is her loose next door neighbor. Her mother hounds detective Bogart (Clifton James) to find her. Mary Ann struggles eventually tries to jump off the Manhattan Bridge. She is stopped by passerby Mike (Ralph Meeker) who takes her back to his basement apartment. What starts out as a little creepy turns into a comfortable kindness. Then he turns up drunk and she's locked in. He won't let her go.

Carroll Baker is basically disintegrating on screen. It's an interesting performance. The turn with Ralph Meeker is an odd animal. There are so many ways to look at it and I'm sure there are people for each way. There are many ways this movie could go but I don't think the happy ending is deserved. It didn't really earn it. It's not great but I hope it's something the filmmaker wanted.