MovieChat Forums > Speak (2004) Discussion > One thing that made me mad about this mo...

One thing that made me mad about this movie.

posted 15 years ago by Peacemaker_xx
8 replies | jump to latest

Overall, this movie was really good. The one thing that made me mad was the way the mom reacted at the end after she found out about the rape. She said to Melinda "well, you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to". After a year of keeping it secret, she was finally ready to talk about it and her mom said she didn't have to. Also the mom barely even noticed her kid was depressed before that. I think a mother's intuition would have told her something was seriously wrong with Melinda besides just losing her best friend.

So yeah, I think if i found out my kid had been raped i would have been crying my eyes and waiting to hear every detail so i could press charges.

and I think a rape victim needs to talk about it to heal and move forward (even though they may never completely heal from it).

So, it just made me mad when the mom said that :l.

[–] Assortments 15 years ago

What did you want her mom to say, "Melinda, you tell me every damn detail, I don't care how embarrassing, DO IT RIGHT NAO!" Seriously? A lot of people don't want to talk about it, her mom was giving her a choice, unlike her rapist who gave her no choice. Did you really expect her to interrogate poor Melinda? That's bullcrap. If her mom had forced her to tell her about it, I would have gotten mad. Would you want to tell your mommy about being raped? Because I wouldn't.

[–] epicwinner10 14 years ago

i think mothers don't want to hear/believe that something so horrible could happen to their children, so they turn a blind eye. i also think she was trying to make it more comfortable for Melinda.

[–] fiatlux-1 14 years ago

I thought the mom was trying to make Melinda comfortable, showing her that she was there if she wanted to talk. People, even if they want to talk, can get scared at any time and not want to talk.
I thought the mom handled it quite well.

What made me mad about this movie was the way the parents just ignored her! She goes from a cheerful, active kid to a moody, near-silent kid in a few months and the parents don't do anything?!
I wanted to slap that father when he's sitting next to her in the car while eating doughnuts, and just casually says "So, how's school?"
UM, ask her what's wrong!
Maybe they did this off camera, but it seemed like the parents were just too wrapped up in their own crap to pay any attention.

"I'd say this cloud is Cumulo Nimbus."
"Didn't he discover America?"
"Penfold, shush."

[–] newoldgirl 14 years ago

in the book you just want to punch her mother in the face like wake up you stupid XD XD
she sleeps in the closet and her mother just open it and give her a pillow !!!
she cuts her self and when her mother see it says suicide is for cowards and bring some books about this subject
and there is a lot of other details
I really really got mad when I read this and watched the movie
I don't know if there is mothers like that but I hope I won't be one of them some day

[–] Ceecee1 14 years ago

I've always wanted to read the book, I've only seen the movie. You'd think the least the mother would do would ask her why she sleeps in the cupboard, and why she cuts herself!

Anyway - rape is a very sensitive subject and people are prone to handling it in different ways, including the mothers of rape-victims. I'm sure a lot of mothers would be like how you mentioned, but many would also be quite wary of pressing the issue with their daughter, I imagine. That's probably the only reason why Melinda's mother told her she didn't need to talk about it.

[–] newoldgirl 14 years ago

The world we live in is so dangerous and thats why a mother should be very observant especially when the subject is about her of her kids
I remember about a 3 months a go I went shopping with my mother, my aunt, my 2 sisters, my little brother (4 years old ) and my cousin ( 5 years old girl )
when we were there I was looking to the clothes with my mother and my aunt and talking and asking them about it ... you know
and somehow my brother and my cousin went to the back of the store and then they came back " looking weird " as my aunt saw , so she started to ask them about what they were doing their because one of the workers of the shop was standing in the place they came from
my aunt stood there like half an hour asking the kids "did he touched you, did he tried to talk to you, did he gave you candy, did he ask you to take your pants down"
thats how the mother should be !!
my mother and my aunt spent the whole week freaking out and asking the kids the same questions over and over and telling them that there is nothing to be afraid of if you told me no one will hurt you
thanks god there were nothing happened but that was really an important lesson to me to know how to keep my eye on my kids -in the future- and to think about the worst things that could happen
if the mother really cared she would ask her daughter about her actions but she was described in the book as workaholic and so her father :(

[–] Ace54 14 years ago

I was under the impression that when her mom said: "You don't have to talk about it," that she was refering to the incident in the closet earlier that day.

And the end we see Melinda finally explaining to her mom how it got Andy attacking her, and so she started with her rape. To me, it seemed that when it showed the mom's reaction it seemed like she hadn't heard it before.

But I don't know, I never read the book.

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"Now that I've posted, this thread will die."

[–] rowenad 14 years ago

The version I saw ends while she is telling her mother about the rape. So I did not even see any reaction from the mother...