Based on the award-winning
novel (winner of the 2000 Michael Printz Award for Excellence in
Young Adult Literature) by Laurie Halse Anderson, Speak
is the story of a smart, spirited freshman, who has been stunned
into silence by an unspeakable event. Heading into your freshman
year is hard enough, but it’s even more difficult for Melinda
Sordino, who has been labeled a squealer for calling the cops on
an end-of-summer drunken party.
Melinda is spurned by her ex-friends, and her parents
are well-meaning, but too preoccupied with their own problems to
notice the trouble their daughter is in. So she turns inward, wondering
how long it would take anyone to notice if she stopped talking altogether.
It is only in art class with her teacher Mr. Freeman (Steve Zahn)
that Melinda finds an outlet to express herself.
Kristen Stewart gives a powerful performance as Melinda
and co-screenwriters Jessica Sharzer and Annie Young Frisbie adapt
the source material to give an uncompromising and unsensationalized
look at high school. Sprinkled with a generous mixture of comedy
as Melinda makes wry observations of the world around her Speak
truly has something to say.
-- Dan Krovich | 
