Once upon a time there was a high school student who had a secret. Not even their best friend knew the depth of the secret. On the surface everything looked normal, just an average pupil carrying their books from class to class. As the weeks and months passed no one noticed the grasping of the books became tighter. Walking through the school’s hallways was turning into a challenge; sometimes they were lucky to only be part of the audience, but other times they were the main event. They soon forgot that their shoulders were not born up by their ears, tensed into hardness. Their eyes stopped looking straight ahead, avoiding contact with anyone’s eyes, as the air around them turned less porous. Throughout the school there were places that were off limits because the memories associated with them were painful. The student who had a good memory oddly could not remember the details inside those memories. All they recalled were the feelings of pain and humiliation. If there were others around who noticed they never came forward to help. Out of the four years of high school there was one year that was planned as their last. That particular year they stayed more inside of their head because it was the safest place for them. Whether it was due to fate, luck or happenstance; they eventually found their way out. They were one of the fortunate ones.    ONCE such good friends Jessica, played by Lexi Ainsworth (So This is Christmas, Wild Child), had no idea what she did that caused Avery, played by Hunter King (A.I. Artificial Intelligence, The Young and the Restless-TV), to treat her so badly. It finally came to a point where Jessica’s best friend Brian, played by Jimmy Bennett (Orphan, Star Trek), came up with a plan he felt could help Jessica out of her situation; she was hesitant to do it. This drama was filmed more like a documentary; that is how real it felt to me. What helped was the use of the found footage technique, though it did not have the shakiness issue that I have found annoying in the past. Several times I had to keep reminding myself the students were actually actors because they were so convincing. In regards to the script, I found it overall to be good; however, there were times where I felt the scenes were purposely pushed with a heavy hand to force a reaction from the audience. In other words, emotions and events lacked subtlety. I did not consider this a major fault since I teared up several times throughout the film. Depending on one’s memories or experiences, do not be surpirsed if you see a lot of people with wet eyes in the theater.

3 stars