Selling Isobel

TW: Rape, Sex Trafficking

This is a hard watch. Frida Farrell lived a traumatic experience, and I can't imagine how she ACTED through her experience all over again. In this film based on personal true events, Frida plays Isobel. Isobel is a single mother who gets approached by a charismatic man in a coffee shop, and offered $7,000 for a short photoshoot. After getting his card and speaking with her boyfriend, she decides to take the chance.

The photographer and situation is sus and awkward, but I could see how somebody could get swayed by the situation. She seems like a smart cookie with a pretty good head on her shoulders and has reservations, is blinded by the dollar amount, and it shows that something like this could happen to anybody.

Second photo session is where things went wrong. Really wrong. And this is where you feel deep empathy for the fact that this woman LIVED this, and then re-lived it through this experience.

She's drugged, raped, sold, and tortured for three days. Based on Frida's interviews, much of her experienced was embellished in the movie due to her being so heavily drugged. That doesn't make this situation any less real.

Many women have experienced this, and this is another sex trafficking movie that brings it into the light.

This woman is not stupid. She was brought into an unbelievable experience, and you never know how you could possibly act if this ever happened to you. This movie provides an important message. As hard as it is to watch, I think it's important to be aware that this could happen to anyone. The message in this movie is the most important aspect of it, apart from the entertainment value.

This movie was shot primarily in one room, with a small number of actors. The acting was mostly good and believable. I'm highly impressed with Gabriel Old's appearance as Peter. He was fantastically evil. I hate that I even liked him at moments? I'm uncomfortable with the lead actress being the victim of the true story, and it makes it hard to understand why she would do this. To get her story out, perhaps. To cope with her trauma, maybe. It's just odd.

It's hard to judge the actions of the main character, as it is a "real person". But I do wish she fought back more, that she showed more drive to escape. That she stabbed the dude directly in the neck. Who am I to judge? Someone that has never experienced anything like this?

Rating: Victim playing herself: Yikes/10 Acting: 7/10 Story: 6/10 Milk chugging: 2/10 Low budget, high impact: 7/10 Overall rating: 6/10.

Hope the lead actress got some therapeutic effect from it, because beside that, this film is empty. Let's see: the sex slave trade is bad, the traders are bad guys, the clients are bad guys with bad maners, and any gullible borderline stupid girls and woman can potentially fall victim of these bad guys because these bad guys are amazingly good at seducing and catching gullible borderline stupid girls. Uh.. you did not know? Well, here you go then. But that's it. Nothing else. Absolutely nada. No character development, no logic in the script, no social and/or political perspective, nothing. Too bad. Could have been much better.

Some of the performances were decent and it obviously sheds light on an important issue, but.... she went to the apartment.... ALONE?... TWICE?? Did she actually do that in real life?? If she did, doesn't that make her seem either unbelievably naive or dumb or both??

I can say that, you can hate me for this, but this is one of those films (Alongside Requiem for a Dream) that they should play at least teens in school. This is a very important message, do not TRUST STRANGERS.

Our main villain who reminds me of Ted Bundy, is a manipulative monster, that who knows how many ladies had gotten this way. Crazy how realistic this movie really is. This is how it works; They seem polite, normal, humane, and then they turn into the worst monster you can think of on the planet earth. Also this movie reminds me a lot, a lot of A Serbian film, just this movie seems more mature with the subject matter.

I can tell you that for the most part i was not bored during the movie, infact i was just thinking for the most part why? And then it's all tied up in a bow, our villain is actually someone elses puppet, which is why he does what he does. There's always someone on top of that someone.

I can safely put this movie in the same boat as Sweet Whip and Thriller A Cruel Picture, a pretty good movie.

You will think the story have been told over and over, but this story is really a wake-up of what the real thing is. It really showed with the information given at the end. With the impact given at the beginning, you will think it is another of those kinds of story and movie.

It is not, I can tell you. So much more depth, only the beginning is a bit overused.

The camera, the scenery is lack in quality made but the acting and some moments are done really great. It was not stretched much to make it to a length of a movie, it holds you in a grip all the time. The dialogs are done really great (I suppose they are the real thing).

It gives a glimb of the situation what these girls are getting in. The terrible thing is when the end of the movie the information is given.