Secret Cutting

Television movie-makers do lots of movies that dramatize an issue to draw attention to it -- diseases and other problems. While well-intentioned, most such movies are crummy "disease of the week" melodramas. "Secret Cutting" stands out as an issue drama that's actually a pretty good movie.

The movie centers on Dawn, an ordinary unpopular high school girl who deals with the stresses of life by cutting herself. Her cutting isn't suicidal; instead she tries to overcome psychological pain by inflicting self-controlled physical pain on herself.

Her mother is not at all understanding -- she talks down to her, and tries to help by taking Dawn shopping, rather than listening to Dawn's problems. Her father is quite understanding, but is rarely there for her, because he's usually at work. Her little brother is a typical rude young boy, and even if he were were supportive he wouldn't have the wisdom to help her much. At school, the "popular" girls just mock her for being an art geek. Her boyfriend has one thing on his mind, and it's not her psychological well being. In short, no one is there for her.

Eventually, people start discovering Dawn's self-injury, when a teacher notices her bleeding. He sends her to the school nurse, who in turn notifies her parents. Her mother reacts by demanding that she stop cutting herself, and when that fails, she hides every sharp object in the house. Her father's efforts to help are undermined by her mother, who reacts to his efforts to help by asking him, "are you saying she's doing this because I'm a bad mother?"

When Dawn cuts herself again at school, Lorraine, an outcast, sees her doing the cutting. Rather than being cruel or indifferent like most kids in school, she becomes concerned. She manages to show her concerns in a way that makes them friends, rather than scaring Dawn into withdrawal. Lorraine even tries to introduce Dawn to her "shrink". But even though Dawn starts to find a support group, her self-injury problem worsens.

The dramatic tension builds through most of the movie, leading to a climax near the end, and finally an incomplete resolution that feels dramatically right. Dawn is particularly convincing. Her experiences as a somewhat-geeky are no worse than a typical high school experience, but we can see how she turns high school misfortunes inward on herself, where others might release their tensions with rage, escapism, or talking them out with a support group. She's well-written, acted, and directed. Her mother initially seems unhelpful just to explain Dawn's pain, but the story eventually reveals why she so often reacts the wrong way. The cruel "popular" girls at school are very convincing -- such kids aren't always mean, but the movie portrays the mean ones just right.

In addition to being a work of drama, the movie is also presenting the issue of self-injury. The incomplete resolution in particular seems to be an important point. While a documentary about the subject could have presented as much information about the problem in a half hour, the movie did that and still worked as entertainment. As an issue drama, it's one of the best. Even as a general movie it's above average.

I have a loved one who has engaged in this type of activity. This movie was both painful and insightful to watch. Having lived through all of the emotions and feelings of the parents and friends, it was strange to realize that this condition is much more common than I had ever imagined. It was also a strong impetus to show this movie to my loved one and help them through the issues, as much as I could. It has been a long time since anything else has happened, and I believe that this movie had a bit of an impact.

The acting is a little stilted/scripted, and the story is a bit predictable, but the power of the story is still there. This is a dangerous, disfiguring, and potentially debilitating condition, and if this movie helped one person, or saved one life, it was worth it. If anyone knows of or loves someone who repeatedly harms themself, this movie is a must see, and I applaud the producers, crew, and cast, as well as the USA Network for providing insight into what is a very scary, but very important issue.

great movie...not a subject I knew much about, but it was very intriguing...much better than the standard made for tv movie...great performance by Kimberlee Peterson. I hope she'll be onscreen a lot more.

Since the dawn of time, or at least since Hamlet, the existence of self-destructive behavior has been clearly recorded. What's funny is that it has historically been shown in a glamorous way, whether we're talking about Hamlet's cool early-Elizabethan Emo attitude, or Humphrey Bogart's suave whiskey-swilling alcoholism in Casablanca, or Batman's heroic death wish. Literature loves psychologically damaged heroes. But the real world often treats this sort of behavior with contempt, and that's what "Painful Secrets" depicts.

Doesn't matter who you are, every person has known some feeling of self-harm, whether it's literally cutting like in this movie or smoking cigarettes or eating a triple fudge brownie against your doctor's orders. Obviously this movie takes it a bit further than triple fudge brownies. Written by Steven Levenkron, a respected psychotherapist who has been studying disorders like anorexia since the 1970s, "Painful Secrets" takes an informed approach to the tricky subject of self-mutilation.

This is the story of a teenage girl whose dysfunctional family and social awkwardness lead her to cut herself, ironically, to control her pain. No, she doesn't do it for an orgasmic high like some people might think self-mutilation is about (that would be masochism); in this case she does it as a coping mechanism when her anxiety gets out of control. Not so different from the workout junkie at the gym who bench presses 350 lbs to feel the burn, "cutting" we learn is about physical control. The film assumes that you have some familiarity with the subject so it doesn't waste much time introducing the premise. Also don't expect a tidy Hollywood ending because something like this doesn't have any tidy Hollywood endings. Instead, this film delivers a very realistic story raising more questions than answers.

Being a USA Network TV production, it does have a certain polished "ABC afterschool special" feel, but not annoyingly so. In fact the glossy exterior works to its advantage later in the film when things get suddenly more intense and raw. I was impressed to see that the film didn't pull any punches in the last half. Although there is no explicit gore & sexuality on screen, the implications are pretty clear.

"Painful Secrets" doesn't claim to tell the story of every troubled teen, but it does a pretty good job of hitting the common issues that accompany the phenomenon of self-injury. In particular: alienation from society (no friends), bullying in school and conflicts at home. It's the home life that I found to be very well done. Nothing cartoonish like some Cinderella wicked stepmom, but much more subtle and insidious: a mother whose own fear of blame leads her to unintentionally heap guilt on her daughter. And perhaps more frighteningly common in American homes: a failing marriage that is secretly absorbed by the children (note to fighting parents: you can NOT hide it from your kids, they're smarter than you are).

The acting is very believable, with powerful moments from each major character: the girl (played by Kimberlee Peterson, known for The West Wing and Boston Public), the mother (played by Sean Young from the 80s thriller "No Way Out"), the father (played by Robert Wisden who has many TV credits from The X-Files to Stargate SG1 to Battlestar Galactica), and of course the therapist (played by Rhea Perlman from Cheers) who doesn't actually have a lot of screen time but plays each scene with the perfect amount of delicacy.

Regardless of subject matter, I'm a fan of films that force the audience to work. I never found the story to be dull or predictable. It kept my mind working from start to finish. Despite all outward appearances of being a made-for-TV-movie, this is one of the most unusual of the lot, at times with an indie feel like "The Squid and the Whale" (another great film about a troubled teen with a lousy home life). "Painful Secrets" gets bonus points for being the only movie I've heard of that boldly tackles the issue of self-harm. Another good film to consider is "Archie's Final Project" a somewhat light-hearted (though respectful) film about teen suicide, or if you're not afraid of experimental indie flicks check out "The Tracey Fragments" with Ellen Page playing a 15-year-old girl who runs away from home following a horrible event.

I saw this movie a couple of months back so I am trying to remember the main parts of it. Most people, and almost everybody that has already commented on it seems to hate it. I however, thought that it was a good idea with a strong script.

Not the best TV movie I have ever seen, not even close, but good none the less. What I can remember is that the main character was played by a somewhat believable actress. Believable of how she acted on her psychotic tendencies to destroy her body, and how she handled the humiliation from her classmates. I thought that this character was well designed. The actor/actress who play the parents of the teenager were also good but lacked somewhat of parental control. Their inability to deal with their daughter's problem seems to make me laugh a little.

While this film has a good script to back up a good problem that most people deal with, it does lack some interesting parts. Let's hear it for USA who had the courage to put something like this on their channel. It was good for a popular problem to be exposed on TV but it carried out with parts that almost made me fall asleep at times. Finally, a movie that shows the actuality of what could happen when urges take over life.

As a couple of people have said, I have to agree that the ending was a tremendous let down. It ended with a lot of questions unanswered. A lot of questions that I had. "Secret Cutting" is a good TV movie but it could have been shortened. Considering that this is what really happens to people, I was amazed by it.