Ask Me Anything (2014)

I very thoroughly misread what kind of movie 'Ask Me Anything' was gonna be. I saw a cover picture of Britt Robertson in a men's shirt and lose tie and thought 'sex comedy', this is going to be lite. Well it's not that light, in fact it gets pretty dark and heavy.

The film it reminds me of the most is 'Perks of Being a Wallflower', only without the fun and appealing friends. Like that movie this one is based on a YA novel and adapted and directed by the author, so we are getting what they intended. While the 'Perks of Being a Wallflower' book was presented as a series of letters, the device here is a young  woman lightly fictionalzing her life on a blog, alieses and such.

Just out of high school and taking a year off before colloge Katie is a naive young woman, played ably by Ms. Robertson. While the film starts out relatively light in tone it proceeds to darken, almost every male character in the thing misuses her, her boyfriend has a quick temper, two older men, one of which is her employer, cheat on fiance and wife respectively with her. Her fathers not a great father, and while her mom's boyfriend seems like a decent guy she resents him. A platonic male friend is generally good to her, but a desprisive who can get verbally mean when he feels neglected.

Katie was abused by a neighbor as a child and spent some time in a mental hospital. She is a wreck, but slow to recognize herself as such. The most decent man to her in the picture could be described as a reformed sex offender. 

Things don't go well for Katie, the ending a real downer with a twist that probably works better in the book, though I thought was creatively handled here. I watched the film a second time about a week after viewing so as to better process what this movie really is. It's uneven, surprisingly subtle, gimmicky, tonely odd. An experminat that dosen't fully work, but an effort to be applauded. **1/2