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'm positive some people identified with this movie, therefore it deserves defending. The things people complained about or said were unrealistic, well maybe to some yes, but to others it is a shocking view of their world.

I thought certain things, the flaws as others have called them, were the most realistic parts. The "angst-ridden" teen, the stand offish parents, the drama of her loneliness, these are real.

Life really can be like that for people, especially teenagers. No, not all, probably not even most. But I have seen them. It is not difficult for someone so young to fall into a world of self loathing and self destructive behavior, whether it be drugs, sex, or a more complex issue like bulimia or cutting.

High school can be wicked, and not everyone has the ability to "develop a thick skin." Kids that have few or no real friends can feel very isolated, even with "normal" supportive parents.

As for the clueless parents, they just seem human to me. People do get confused, hide their emotions and do all the wrong things. Often, parents have unresolved issues that are hidden even to themselves. These issues often effect how they handle situations such as these.

Yes, you do have to read a lot into this movie. But a movie that spells it all out for you is a documentary, not a drama. Thought provoking films have much hidden depth, as this one did. A valiant effort for a TV movie I should think.

Oh, one more thing I'd like to offer my viewpoint on. I didn't think she looked orgasmic after her cutting. I thought she looked numb, like her pain was quiet. I have to agree with whomever called it an addiction. One can have many ways of masquerading control over life. This is just one on a list of thousands.

While I did not think this movie was terrible, I didn't think it was great either. But, it did have the creepy factor down. It put me in a numb, thoughtless mood for a few hours after I finished watching it. The scene that I really think got me was when she used the razor and cut her stomach, etc.

I thought that this was a pretty decent film for someone who knew nothing about cutting. However, I am really sick of these "awareness" movies, about things like cutting, eating disorders, etc., who try to show a "typical" victim. Even when they try to make the victim come from a "typical" family, such as in "Secret Cutting," there are always obvious factors (usually external) that provoke the problem. Why can't they ever show a character who doesn't know or can't explain what makes her (or him) do whatever she is doing? It upsets me that these kind of movies always make everything so clear-cut and easy to understand.

However, Dawn's situation in this movie did explain her cutting, and the movie was overall good. While some people commented that her expressions and the "orgasmic" cutting experience were unrealistic, I fully disagree. For some, at least, cutting is a way of releasing inner feelings - it calms you down. You can feel all the stress and pain from life fade away for a little while. I think that, if anything, Dawn's expressions while she is cutting makes it more realistic, and shows the depth of her cutting. Overall, it's not a great movie, but it's not terrible either.

when i first saw this movie i was 14 and had been cutting for seven or eight years. dawn reminded me so much of myself. i used to be like omigod totally popular, but i pulled away from my friends and became a loner.when people found out that i was a cutter, the school which used to be my loving home became hell. my home life was hell. my parents responded jhust like dawn's. my brother told me to go kill myself and i did the same thing she did. i tore myself apart. i'm still not better and am only going onto my 28th day of sobriety, but after 12 years of tearing myself open i know that being picked on did nothing but push me further over the edge. i know over 100 girls and boys that hurt themselves and that's just in my small 2000 person town and i don't even know everyone. there are probably more that i don't even know about. don't judge... because we're all around you.

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.