Speak

for the record I just wanted to say that ive watched this film before last august. when I watched it for that first time I wasn’t really into it as much as am I now. now that I’m reading the book at this moment and rewatching this movie even though I have like 90 more pages to go in the book, IVE realized how much I actually love this film and the book itself. when reading the book I felt connected to it, like this book was made for me and that I just really immersed myself with the main character and related to her expect for the whole sa part. (which I will talk about in a minute) when I first watched this film, I went in blind not even knowing the plot of the film as for ive been recommend of it tiktok. at that time when watching the film, I didn’t really understand the many different variations of sa. now that i do understand more better i would just like to say how much I like how this film portrays it. although, I haven’t gotten into the part of the book where it is being fully confronted, I would just like to say how much the book has helped me understand sexual assault and how it affects the victims of it as well. also, I really liked it when david said “listen, the suffragettes were all about speaking up. you can’t speak up for your rights and be silent. I thought what you did was cool, but you can’t make a difference unless you speak up.” and how that motivated mel to speak up for herself and how it also gave me the motivation to do the same. I really liked the relationship that mel had with mr. freeman as well. I do believe that mr. freeman really helped mel and that he was apart of the reason how mel was able to speak up for herself. I believe that he’s given melinda a way to express her emotions through art as later in the film her mother and father give her a sketchbook and writing materials because they noticed that she’s been drawing. which really stuck with her and me as well because at that moment she felt like she’s finally been noticed, seen, and that her parents really are watching her no matter how detached she feels from them, she felt so seen at that moment that she almost told both of her parents about her sa. I was really proud of mel when she finally spoke up for herself and stood up to heather which is something that I wish I could do. I really hated how rachel did not want to believe mel when she told her that andy sa’d her. the fact that it took throughout the entirety of freshman year for mel to tell someone about it and rachel being the first one she tells as for they been best friends and rachel happened to be dating andy at the time and mel was just trying to protect rachel from getting hurt like she did because she does still care about rachel and the fact that after all of that rachel was so quick to call mel a “liar” really pissed me off. anyways, I also liked when mel finally got that off her chest, she started to feel much better than she did before and she was actually starting feel more happy, open, free. Im glad that in the end, andy finally got what he deserved, although I feel like he deserves WAY worse consequences for what he did. At the end of the book it really made my heart melt when Melinda’s mom found out about the sa and she told melinda that she didn’t have to talk about it if she didn’t want to and that after that mel said that she did and in the end she can see mel finally telling her mom about her sa like breaking a chain or lock from your throat and the fact that we could see how much her mom was paying attention to mel and giving her, her full undivided attention. in conclusion, I really loved the film and the book, I am still going to keep reading the book myself as for I’m borrowing it from a friend, and when I do finish and return it to her I will definitely consider getting a copy of the book for myself.