. . . this would be one cut by an amateur not realizing the stone's true potential. It's hardly polished at all; and is mounted in a setting wrought from an old tin cup. Between poor writing, dropped plot-lines (the sunglasses), 2-dimensional "cardboard cut-out" support characters and unnecessary sub-plots (the nerd and his faulty fuel gauge) . . . critics will find ample fodder to shoot this production down. But I rated it a 5 because it dared to tackle the uber mega taboo topic of the toxic femme. In a post-feministic culture where men are pigs and women are the saintly victims with excuses, this is a topic that needs more brave production crews tackling it. It is an "accepted factoid" that only 1/3 of convicted child sex offenders are female. But this doesn't consider aspects of the young male ego that would refuse to see such an assault by a woman as "abuse" to be reported . . . but rather as a boasting point of the boy's precocious sexual prowess (as the lead character notes, or as seen in the mostly forgotten Letourneau case where to this day the then-12-yr-old boy refuses to see himself as a victim). Only a fraction of actual assaults against boys by women go reported, and only a fraction of these go on to prosecution. And even then it takes considerable grooming and coaching to have a boy present himself in court as "the victim".The main theme of this movie is the kidnapping and alleged sexual assault of a boy by a "troubled" woman. Both of the lead roles are performed skillfully enough to carry the story. The sub- story of the antagonist's being the result of her own toxic mother "spewing her venom" all over the home so the father quietly leaves, is adequately integrated. But the part about the "educational abuse" of boys by feministic teachers (while a prevalent social problem) is dropped on us with all the tact of a turd in the punch bowl. As in "Whoa! Where did that come from??". These are all issues that while very prevalent in our society, are taboo to discuss -- let alone make a movie about. But they are issues we need to stop sweeping under the rug. This movie has value. But it is a value that has been squandered on poor writing/production. Here's hoping more effective productions bringing light to these themes are in the wings.
