Reviving Ophelia (film)

Reviving Ophelia
Written by	Mary Pipher (book); Teena Booth (teleplay)
Directed by	Bobby Roth
Starring	Jane Kaczmarek; Rebecca Williams; Nick Thurston; Carleigh Beverly; Kim Dickens
Theme music composer	Christopher Franke; Edgar Rothermich
Country of origin	Canada
Original language(s)	English
Production
Producer(s)	Steve Solomos
Running time	92 minutes
Release
Original network	Lifetime
Original release	October 11, 2010;

Reviving Ophelia is a 2010 Lifetime Original Movie starring Jane Kaczmarek and Kim Dickens.^[1] The title is a reference to the non-fiction book Reviving Ophelia. The film, which was produced by Muse Entertainment and shot in Toronto, received two Canadian Gemini Award nominations: Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Dramatic Program or Mini-Series (Rebecca Williams) and Best Writing in a Dramatic Program or Mini-Series (Teena Booth).^[2]

Plot[edit]

It is Elizabeth Jones' (Rebecca Williams) 17th birthday and she and her mother Marie (Jane Kaczmarek) and cousin Kelli Dunley (Carliegh Beverly) are baking and decorating Elizabeth's birthday cake and planning her party. When LeAnn (Kim Dickens), Marie's sister and Kelli's mother arrives late because of work, Elizabeth's boyfriend Mark Stenwyck (Nick Thurston) shows up, even after Marie tells Elizabeth the party was family only and was to wait until after the party to see Mark, LeAnn admits it was her fault for being late. Elizabeth leaves with Mark to see a movie and Kelli goes home to study for a test with her friend Vicki and their friends Austin and Cody. After Vicki and Cody leave Kelli's house, Austin stays behind as he was starting to fall for Kelli and they share a kiss. When LeAnn arrives home from work and catches Kelli performing a sexual act with Austin, she arranges for Kelli to stay at Marie's home when she is working that weekend. Meanwhile, as Mark and Elizabeth get back to Elizabeth's house, he wants to get a room the following night but Elizabeth has a scary movie night with her friends Amy and Lainie at Amy's house.

Mark gets angry because she didn't tell him to begin with and believes that she doesn't care about him. The next morning Mark gives her a DVD of a scary movie for her scary movie night and tells her he loves her way too much to stay mad at her. When they go to Mark's house during lunchtime so he can give Elizabeth her present, she looks at his picture of him and his mother. His mom had left when he was a child due to his father, Terry, abusing her and hitting her. Elizabeth and Kelli get home and Marie tells them Amy's mother said it was fine to bring Kelli to scary movie night. While Elizabeth and Kelli are watching a scary movie at Amy's house, Mark tracks Elizabeth down via her cellphone GPS, and tries to make her leave with him. He only backs off when Kelli runs outside. On the afternoon while Kelli is watching Cody's band play at the park, Mark shows up and tells her it's the night they get a hotel room.

Then at dinner Marie and Walter will not let Elizabeth go out that night because she has to study for her chemistry mid-term and they also won't let her invite Mark over because she is spending too much time with him. When Elizabeth is in her room texting Mark, Kelli comes in and tells her that Cody's guitar player told her about Mark's ex-girlfriend Ashley Johnson and says she might be a "total psycho". Elizabeth confronts her saying she's tired of her ragging on Mark and saying she's jealous that she has a boyfriend and Kelli doesn't but Kelli denies that she's jealous of Mark. Later, Mark sneaks into Elizabeth's room through a window, Elizabeth tries to ask him about his ex-girlfriend (who, according to Kelli, became a "total psycho" after dating Mark; possibly copying his father's abuse), he gets angry and leaves. After Kelli returns to the house after taking a walk, Marie confronts Kelli about "sneaking out" of the house. Kelli says that she saw Mark climbing out of Elizabeth's bedroom window, but Elizabeth says she is lying. Marie believes Elizabeth, causing Kelli to run off.

While LeAnne and Marie are discussing Kelli's whereabouts, Marie receives a call that Elizabeth is at the hospital. Marie is unaware that Elizabeth had even left the house. At the hospital, Mark tells them that Elizabeth wanted to go out and look for Kelli. He swerved to avoid a dog and, as a result, Elizabeth hit her face on the dashboard of his car. When her parents leave, Mark apologizes to Elizabeth for losing his temper and hitting her. Elizabeth is grounded for leaving the house and ordered not to talk to or see Mark for two weeks. However, she continues to secretly see him. Following this, he sneaks into her bedroom again and they have sex. While at school, Kelli sees Elizabeth and Mark fooling around in the schoolyard and she bumps the spot on her face where Mark had hit her the other night and as she told Mark, Kelli hears it and runs to tell Marie, but ends up not saying anything. Elizabeth defends Mark's behavior, insisting that he loves her.

Mark becomes jealous of Elizabeth's interactions with Ty Benchley, a male classmate. While running through the school hallway to meet up with Mark, she accidentally drops her homework. Ty helps her pick it up and jokes around with her. Elizabeth looks up and sees that Mark has been watching her the whole time. She runs outside and tries to tell Mark that she is not flirting with Ty, but he punches her in the face and walks away. Kelli sees her bloodied face and walks her to the nurse's office. The principal tells Marie that Mark hit her, but Elizabeth is denying it by insisting that she fell. Elizabeth starts to see a psychiatrist and continues to deny any abuse while claiming Mark loves her. She pretends to break up with Mark but continues to secretly see him and will not be honest about any of her injuries for fear that police involvement will ruin Mark's life. Her parents are concerned, and Mark's abuse continues to escalate. Elizabeth receives a notification that a photo of her has been tagged on Facebook. The photo is of her with blood running down her face while saying "Wherefore art thou, Romeo?" Someone (presumably Mark) has taken a picture of her, edited it, and posted it on Facebook as a joke. Elizabeth is shocked after seeing this.

In a session with the psychiatrist, Elizabeth reads a list of signs of abuse on the psychiatrist's computer and recognizes Mark's behavior in all of them. That night, Mark calls and demands to know why she isn't answering her phone or text messages. She finds him waiting for her in her room and tells Mark that their relationship is truly over. He refuses to accept it, threatening to kill himself and wrapping his arms tightly around her. He says he won't let go until she takes him back. She yells for her parents and he bolts out the window as her parents come in. Mark sends her a text message that says she doesn't deserve to live.

Elizabeth and her parents obtain a restraining order against Mark, who must now remain fifty feet away from her at all times. Terry, Mark's abusive father, is so furious about the situation (and also suspicious of his son's behavior) that he threatens to beat up Elizabeth's father (for putting his son in jail). Later, when Kelli and Elizabeth go to see Cody—another student at the school—and his band play at a coffee shop, Mark shows up and pulls out a gun, saying that he cannot live without Elizabeth and is going to kill her and then himself, and also threatens to kill Kelli for ruining everything. After Elizabeth talks Mark into dropping the gun, the police show up and arrest him.

Elizabeth is later found by her mother in the kitchen, baking cookies for Kelli, who then helps Elizabeth cook them.

Awards and nominations[edit]

Year	Award	Category	Person	Result
2011	Gemini Award	Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Dramatic Program or Mini-Series	Rebecca Williams	Nominated
2011	Gemini Award	Best Writing in a Dramatic Program or Mini-Series	Teena Booth	Nominated

Cast[edit]

Rebecca Williams as Elizabeth Jones
Jane Kaczmarek as Marie Jones
Nick Thurston as Mark Stenwyck
Carleigh Beverly as Kelli Dunley
Peter Outerbridge as Walter Jones
Kim Dickens as Le Anne Dunley
Joe Dinicol as Cody
Jordan Hudyma as Austin
Lola Tash as Vicky
Rebekah Miskin as Lainie
Shanice Banton as Amy
Alyssa Schafer as nurse
Kim Roberts as Lindsay
Deborah Grover as Principal Miller
Jamie Johnston as Ty Benchley
Shane Daly as Terry Stenwyck

References[edit]

Jump up^ "Reviving Ophelia Movie - Official Site". myLifetime.com. Retrieved 2012-08-20.
Jump up^ http://geminiawards.tribute.ca/

External links[edit]

Reviving Ophelia on IMDb

[1] Jump up^ "Reviving Ophelia Movie - Official Site". myLifetime.com. Retrieved 2012-08-20.

[2] Jump up^ http://geminiawards.tribute.ca/

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Kayla's Korner

January 25, 2018