In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

After a blurred trauma over the summer, Melinda enters high school a selective mute. Struggling with school, friends, and family, she tells the dark tale of her experiences, and why she has chosen not to speak. Speak (2004) is one of those small budget films that truly works so fine and let me give you the reasons number 1 Kristen Stewart is fantastic in this the first time i watched this i didn't pay attention that much on details or characters but this time i did and Melinda is an extraordinary character and she is a daily life girl that any male or female can support because the film is written well and you feel about this teenager that was raped in this party and she is trying to deal with it she doesn't speak that much, she screams by putting her faces in her clothes and somehow she finds her life in drawing where this teacher helps her and tries to motivate her to draw a tree and Steve Zahn as Mr. Freeman is just terrific and by the end of the movie you see that his character believes in this girl especially when she showed him her drawings of the trees he told her to draw, another great written character is Mr. Neck played by Robert John Burke (Robocop 3) who is really good as well playing this teacher that we all had once in our lives that just hated us for no reason but the ending made me see a different side of him he basically calls her Melinda when we last see him and not Sordino isn't that great? He probably found out too what Melinda been through and he actually respected her. As for her parents they are both good too but they don't understand their child and what she has been through and the flashbacks also help in order to built the whole story or even a memory of her reaching to get this apple. Guys in the end Speak is a terrific drama and truly works thanks to good writing, direction, acting, characters and also story and movies like this prove that Stewart is very talented and i just wish that she never starred in those Twilight films because this small budget movies truly show her great talent and that's why i'll give this film a 10 out of 10.

i have not read the book, so is not competent to judge either quality of book, or its transference to movie. this review is about the movie only.it is a story about trauma, and inability and/or unwillingness to communicate with others, as well as resulting isolation and depression. in other words, a worthy story to be told. unfortunately, it is told in worn out cinematic clichés about American high schools, using a lot of supporting characters, especially adult ones, who are mere one dimensional cartoons. one may argue that it is a teenage point of view, but even teenage movies, when they are great, let the teenage point of view grow up to realize that cartoonish view of others, fellow teenagers and adults, and world at large, is a false one. this movie remain in cartoon-land throughout.script also includes far too many tendentious political pronouncements totally unrelated to story.that does not mean all is bad here. kristen stewart is a very good actress and make the lead character live. one gets the feeling that had her character more speaking lines, she too would become simplistic caricature through the bad script. luckily character does not speak much, and allow the actress to bring her to life.i must also commend the rather understated but well executed cinematography, with barely perceptible allusions to other works.but, in spite of mitigating factors, since the movie fails in its core, i have to give a bad score instead of a mediocre one.

Wow! I just found out that today, January 20, 2014 is the 10th year anniversary of the release of this fine movie by Showtime. I really love this movie and have watched it numerous times.The actress Kristen Stewart shines in it.The main character is a young teenage girl named Melinda Sordino. Sordino is Italian for " mute," and Melinda can mean, among other things,a Linden tree. Ironically, the quasi "mute" Melinda is the very person doing all the narrating throughout the movie.Many other character's in the movie have similar type names, for example; Heather is a friend that unfriends Melinda because Melinda is too depressed. And Ivy who unfriends her because of a misunderstanding. In fact, Melinda refers to cliques as "clans" which is from the Latin for sprout.And the author Nathaniel Hawthorne is mentioned in her English class and Hawthorne is a hedge bush of the rose family.Hawthorne's book, The Scarlet Letter is mentioned as being full of symbolism.Which this story seems to also be full of.I can't figure out why the author,Laurie Hals Anderson, of Speak uses so many horticultural references.But interestingly enough,right after Melinda is sexually assaulted by Andy,who is a popular teen, Melinda stays in his Jeep Wrangler after he leaves her. She looks through the windshield as she's weeping and sees a large majestic tree. Is the tree a " mute witness" to the crime?" We see the rape in a series of flashbacks by Melinda. Later on, when she begins her freshman year at Merryweather High, her lovable bohemian art teacher, Mr. Freeman, instructs the class to pick a slip of paper out of a damaged globe that will have their year long art project on it. Melinda picks one that has the word " tree." She tries to put it back but Mr Freeman says not to because that is her " destiny."Also, she turns inwards and starts to cut class and hideout in a utility room at her school.And then she, like the trees and shrubs around her, starts to recover after the cold winter and she finally begins to regain her strength and courage. This may explain why the author used the tree as a symbol for Melinda.The story line does not suffer from several plots interweaving like we see so much of but rather all the focus is on this young teen and her nearly year long recovery from her trauma.She befriends a very nice classmate named Dave Petrakis. Perhaps more symbolism here because the name Petrakis refers to a rock or maybe even a bedrock. And he is supportive of her while never really knowing what happened to her.The cast is finely tuned and hums like (fill in your favorite set of wheels). Kudos to the composer Christopher Libertino for a fantastic musical score. His use of a chamber orchestra and piano near the end when Melinda and her mom are driving back home after Melinda was put through another ordeal by Andy, the teen who raped her the previous summer, takes that scene to lofty heights. Happy 10th Year Anniversary, Speak.

Speak is the movie that gave the illusion Kristen Stewart was a good actress. It is a poignant and look at a traumatized girl with elective mutism.Melinda Sordino (Kristen Stewart) is a normal, happy fourteen-year-old about to start high school. But one night at a party something horrible happens to her, and she calls 911 to ask for help. Unable to find her voice, she hangs up and the police come to the address and bust the party. The already traumatized Melinda is labeled a "Squealer" and loses all her friends, becoming a pariah as she enters high school. In light of the painful event and the fact that everyone hates her, Melinda decides to stop talking. While her parents (Elizabeth Perkins & D.B. Sweeney) seem oblivious to her depression and withdrawal, Melinda finds solace in her caring art teacher Mr. Freeman (Steve Zahn) and outspoken classmate Dave Petrakis (Michael Angarano). Through her year long assignment of drawing trees, Melinda tries to heal from what happened and speak again, while slowly revealing to the audience what changed her life.The story is solid, and it was a very good adaption of the novel. The book put a lot of focus on Melinda's artwork, and it is even more powerful to see it on screen. Kristen Stewart performs well in this film, probably because her flat affect and often blank expressions fit so well with the character. She does well with the few lines within the film itself, and an even better job of narrating it. Kristen narrates with an air of pained dissociation, which rings very true for anyone who has or works with people suffering with Post-Traumatic Stress. There is also a heartfelt performance by Steve Zahn, as the only adult who reaches out to Melinda and gives her exactly what she needs—a tool to process her emotions. So good it will make you overlook the Twilight series!