Reviving Ophelia (film)

Reviving Ophelia
Directed by	Bobby Roth
Produced by	Steve Solomos
Written by	Mary Pipher (book) Teena Booth (teleplay)
Starring	Jane Kaczmarek Rebecca Williams Nick Thurston Carleigh Beverly Kim Dickens
Music by	Christopher Franke Edgar Rothermich
Country	Canada
Language	English
Original channel	Lifetime
Release date	October 11, 2010 (2010-10-11)

Reviving Ophelia is a Lifetime Original Movie starring Jane Kaczmarek and Kim Dickens.^[1] The title is a reference to the non-fiction book Reviving Ophelia.

Plot

When LeAnne arrives home from work and catches her daughter in a sex act with a classmate, she arranges for Kelli to stay at her sister's home when LeAnne is working. Kelli notices that her cousin Elizabeth is in an unhealthy relationship with her boyfriend, Mark. He calls and texts her constantly, tries to control where she goes and what she wears, and becomes angry when she tries to spend any time with her friends.

While Elizabeth and Kelli are at a friend's house watching a movie, Mark calls Elizabeth, wanting her to come outside and see him; it is revealed that that he tracked her location down via her cell phone GPS, and has been waiting outside for her the whole time. Mark tries to see who Elizabeth has been in touch with via her cell phone, then attempts to make Elizabeth to leave with him. Kelli, who has been watching, runs outside and Mark backs off.

Kelli tells Elizabeth about Mark's ex-girlfriend, Ashley Johnson. Kelli says that Ashley became "a total psycho" after dating Mark, and Elizabeth should try to find out why. When Elizabeth asks Mark about it, he becomes angry, accuses Kelli and Elizabeth of talking trash about him, and leaves out the window. After dinner, as Kelli returns from a walk, she sees Mark leaving through Elizabeth's window. Marie confronts Kelli about "sneaking out" of the house. Kelli tells Marie about Mark's exit and, after being called a liar by Elizabeth, Kelli runs out of the house.

While LeAnne and Marie are discussing Kelli's whereabouts, Marie receives a call that Elizabeth is at the hospital. Marie is unaware that Elizabeth had left the house. Mark meets them at the hospital. He tells them that he had swerved to avoid a dog and Elizabeth had struck her face on the dashboard of his car. When her parents leave, Mark apologizes to Elizabeth for losing his temper and hitting her. Elizabeth and Mark are told they cannot see, call, or text each other for two weeks, but Elizabeth secretly defies her parents' orders.

Mark becomes jealous of Elizabeth's interactions with a male classmate and again punches her. Kelli sees her bloodied face and walks her to the nurse's office. The principal tells Marie that Mark hit her while Elizabeth denies it, insisting that she fell. Marie and Walter argue about what options are available to protect their daughter and how to handle the situation. Elizabeth starts to see a psychiatrist and continues to deny any abuse while claiming Mark loves her.

Elizabeth pretends to break up with Mark but continues to see him. She will not be truthful about her injuries, and is afraid that any police involvement will ruin Mark's life. Marie is incredulous that Elizabeth's concern is not for herself but for Mark. Marie contacts the psychiatrist who warns Marie that ending an abusive relationship is dangerous and just because someone says a relationship is over, that does not mean that it is actually over. Later on, while browsing the internet, Elizabeth receives a notification that a photo of her has been tagged on Facebook. The photo is of her with blood running down her face while saying "Wherefore art thou, Romeo?" Somebody has taken a picture of her, edited it, and posted it on Facebook as a joke. Elizabeth is shocked after seeing this.

At another session with the psychiatrist, Elizabeth reads a list of signs of abuse on the psychiatrist's computer and recognizes Mark's behavior in all of them. That night, Mark calls and demands to know why she isn't answering her phone or text messages. She finds him waiting for her in her room and tells Mark that their relationship is over. He refuses to accept it, threatening to kill himself and wrapping his arms tightly around her. He says he won't let go until she takes him back. She yells for her parents and he bolts out the window as her parents come in. Mark immediately sends her a text message telling her she is a liar and doesn't deserve to live.

Elizabeth and her parents obtain a restraining order against Mark, who must now remain 50 feet away from her at all times. When Kelli and Elizabeth go to see Cody's band play at a coffee shop, Mark shows up and pulls out a gun, saying that he cannot live without Elizabeth and is going to kill her and then himself. After Elizabeth talks Mark into dropping the gun, the police show up and arrest him.

Elizabeth is later found by her mother in the kitchen, baking cookies for Kelli.

Cast

• Jane Kaczmarek as Marie Jones
• Rebecca Williams as Elizabeth Jones
• Nick Thurston as Mark Stenwyck
• Carleigh Beverly as Kelli Dunley
• Peter Outerbridge as Walter Jones
• Kim Dickens as Le Ann Dunley
• Joe Dinicol as Cody
• Alyssa Schafer as nurse

Relationships and Self of Adolescent Girls

Reviving Ophelia is based on the book by Mary Pipher called Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls. Although the story line in this movie is not specifically taken from the book, it expresses significant themes that Pipher emphasizes throughout her therapy sessions with various adolescent girls. In the movie, there are scenes within the English class where they discuss Shakespeare’s Hamlet; this reference sets the underlying message of the male pressures that adolescent girls must deal with in their everyday lives. In Hamlet, Ophelia is forced to present a false self for both her father and her lover, Hamlet. One of the main characters, Kelly, is able to comprehend the dilemma that girls must go through in their relationship with boys as she initially stands by as her cousin, Elizabeth, succumbs to her abusive boyfriend. The emotions concerning relationships and the self are displayed in this movie display some of the problems that are discussed in Piphers’ book.

Family Relations

The bond between mother and daughter as well as father and daughter can be viewed as “a study in contrasts”.^[2] Kelly and her mother LeAnne have a strained relationship at the beginning of the movie where LeAnne is portrayed as lost and confused about what to do and what to say to her 16 year-old daughter. Pipher describes the constant fighting aspect that occurs between parents and daughters by stating, “They may even argue as a way to maintain a connection. Fights are a way of staying close and asserting distance at the same time. Baffled parents, especially mothers, report that their daughters go out of their way to pick fights”.^[3] This is precisely the relationship that Kelly and LeAnne have at the beginning of the movie; however, by the end, they learn to trust each other. Kelly expressed the need to be listened to and wanted a reminder of the love that LeAnne had for her daughter. A very different relationship that is presented in Reviving Ophelia is the main character Elizabeth and her seemingly perfect life with two loving parents. The contrast between Kelly’s single parent household versus Elizabeth’s overwhelmingly pristine family atmosphere causes tension between Kelly and Elizabeth who used to be best friends and cousins. Elizabeth and her parents end up fighting a battle against Elizabeth’s boyfriend, Mark. There is an internal struggle for the parents as they want to protect their child from such harm but at the same time they must give her the freedom to make the correct choices.

Struggle to Maintain Self

The movie emphasizes that concept that adolescence “is a time of deep searching for the self in relationships”.^[4] When examining the character of Kelly we see her experiencing sexual and romantic relationships as well as having a tense relationship with her mother and her cousin, Elizabeth. She sees so many of the issues that Elizabeth is put through and becomes fearful and withdrawn when it comes to relationships with boys. However, the movie displays Kelly’s increasing ability to become an independent thinker and retain her “true self”.^[5] One way in which she does this is through music which is one element of adolescent development that Pipher discusses. Her enthusiasm for music and poetry correspond with Piphers statement that music “expresses the intensity of their emotions in a way that words cannot”.^[6] While Kelly is featured as having her own personal struggles, she is strongly intertwined with her cousin Elizabeth’s drama. Elizabeth increasingly shapes her identity around Mark as her grades drop and she loses contact with all of her friends. This unhealthy relationship is based on the false love that she and Mark have for each other. Pipher suggests that in this stage in life, adolescents have particular difficulties with “emotional reasoning, which is the belief that if you feel something is true, it must be true”.^[7] Therefore, when Mark becomes overly possessive and violent but repeatedly says that he loves Elizabeth, she believes it. With the strong support system that Pipher also emphasizes as essential to adolescent girls surviving such struggles, Elizabeth and Kelly overcome some of the many obstacles that girls just like them face every day.

References

External links

• Reviving Ophelia at the Internet Movie Database