I am not a survivor of child sexual abuse (thank goodness), but this movie was emotionally wrenching for me. As a parent of two very young daughters, my heart went out to the women in the movie who had been victims of such abuse, and it drove home the point that how we treat our children has dire effects on them for the rest of their lives. Though these women were largely victims of extreme physical abuse, it should be remembered that even emotional abuse can be extremely damaging. I remember to this day (I am almost 40) my mother telling me, "you are not loved...you are put up with", and those 9 words have colored all of my life, all my successes and failures, and all my relationships. If something so small can wreak such havoc, one can only imagine with horror what the trials these women went through have done to them, and this movie goes a long way toward helping you understand that horror.
The movie suffers only from trying to force a happy ending out of mountains of tragedy. I was somewhat put off by Angela's desire to forgive her father. I don't understand how you can forgive something like that, and their relationship ever after would have been tainted by those memories. It was difficult for me to watch her reunite with and forgive her brother, but that is at least a little more understandable, since he was a minor when these events happened and cannot be as responsible for his actions as his father, and he was also, of course, equally a victim.
The scene where Angela sits with her father on the steps outside his home and he denies the abuse, with the full knowledge they both know he is lying, is unforgettable and almost too uncomfortable to watch. And then Angela tells her father, "well, I'll let you get to church". Exquisite irony like that would seem too heavy handed for drama. I won't give away the others, but there are many such lines in the film, both ironic and pathetic, that will be ringing in your ears for days after you see this.
