Rating: /5
No one knows what it's like to be you. Hard as they may try, other people see you only in terms of their lives, their experiences. Don't let them decide what is right for you.
Maya (Rosario Dawson) meets Jared (Chad Faust) at a party. Jared tries a pickup line but, when challenged, confesses his fixation on Maya and the need to meet her. She is curious, and the two begin dating
Jared likes to talk about pain and his past, saying that Maya does not understand pain like his, that she lives in the clouds and looks down on guys like him. One night, after some wine, the two begin making out, and he pushes for more, but when Maya declines, he only pushes harder, and he rapes her, whispering racial slurs to her as he does
Maya becomes withdrawn, no longer wearing makeup or dressing up as before, only hanging out with non-white people like herself. With them, she meets Adrian (Marcus Patrick), who gets off on power play, controlling and bullying the people in his life. Maya watches on and takes note
Then, Jared shows up again in her life, taking a class for which she is a TA. She decides to see him again so that she can get revenge, leading to a 20-minute rape scene that goes on until the credits
This is the first rape revenge movie I can recall seeing where the revenge is rape as well — I’m sure there are others that I’m not aware of. Also, this is the only one I’ve seen that brings a racial component to the rapist’s motives
I don’t know how I feel about this. It did its job in making both rape scenes horrifying in their own ways. But I think the movie underserves the character of Maya, leaving a lot of character motivation to “because she was raped.” I only mention it because the middle of the movie starts to explore the person Maya has become, but it cuts it short for its shocking conclusion, so the transition feels sudden