Melissa P.

An Italo-Spanish co-production about the sexual awakening of teenager Melissa, loosely based in the semi-autobiographic novel "100 colpi di spazzola prima di andare a dormire" by Melissa Panarello.

The movie shows the dilemmas, challenges, and darkness that young women face when they become sexual beings, try to accept their sexuality, but have no sexual education or guidance.

It is truly rare finding a movie that focus on teenager women and sex, and not men, and in which the woman is presented as an explicitly sexual human being.

The movie is frank and even ruthless in its approach to contemporary teens' sexuality in general and Melissa's in particular. We see her strong shameless strong sex drive, which she cannot harmonize with her wish to be loved and respected as a woman by a man. She struggles making sense of the importance of accepting social boundaries and not giving way to peer pressure to fit into a group, which is a quintessential teen problem. Melissa's awakening is a path of pain as well as of pleasure, but takes her to very dark places, in scenes that can be disturbing.

Despite the good premises, the script is uneven, not always engaging, and has most adult characters barely sketched except for Melissa's and for Melissa's charming eccentric grandmother -played by Geraldine Chaplin-. The character of Melissa's mother Daria -played by Fabrizia Sacchi- is barely drawn, and very stereotypical. The absent father, and his marital relationship with Daria, is barely explained, just a reference outside. Most male teen characters are depicted as despicable villains, stereotypical machos, and I don't think I want to believe that is always the case.

Maria Valverde is very good as Melissa, actually, she's the best thing in the movie. She has an impressive acting registry for such a young age. Her face is splendorous always, her expression innocent, childish, weak and boyish sometimes, hyper-feminine, dramatic, strong and sexual some others. Valverde has to deal with very raunchy scenes, some of them very dramatic, and she succeeds at making believable her character. Geraldine Chaplin is always a delight, but I did not find her especially inspired in this movie, mostly because the way her character is written. The rest of the actors are just OK.

A not always engaging movie, but with some interesting themes and a good performance by Valverde.

I saw very little of the book in this film, this is not to say that this alone makes for a poor movie. As a matter of fact it was better that the book despite the fact that I still thought it was awful. I personally feel that the only reason any one bothered to make this book into a film was because of the shock value. Melissa's sexual exploits were for the most part disgusting and whatever was left over was disturbing. I'm not prude but that book nauseated me, and the movie wasn't much better. At least the movie had some kind of a story. The book was more or less a detailed list of all the raunchy things she had done in her past, there was no connection between her and any part of her family. No mention of the grandmother that figures quite largely into the movie's plot, not a peep. All in all if you have the choice between the movie or the book pick the movie, at least it is shorter.

Based on a controversial novel, this coming-of-age drama from 'A Bigger Splash' director Luca Guadagnino focuses on a fifteen year old girl who begins to sexually experiment in unconventional and degrading ways. María Valverde is well cast in the title role and wearing negligible makeup, Geraldine Chaplin looks at least a decade older than her actual age in a memorable turn as Valverde's feisty, free-spirited grandmother. Interesting as Valverde is to follow around, there are some gaps in her character progression. At times, it seems like she is acting out as a result of being rebuffed by her high school crush with at least a couple of points in which she agrees to do things to prove that she is "not a baby". And yet, it is what happens to her grandmother that actually initiates her quest, and try as the film does, it has trouble finding a balance between being about grief and societal pressures. There is also something to be said for the lack of graphic imagery. Most of her exploits are told to us via diary entries and while this has the advantage of leaving it up to one's imagination to fill in the blanks, everything that occurs resonates less since we only ever see fleeting glimpses of her quest. Curiously enough, even with the explicit content kept to a minimum, the film has still sparked some controversy. It is certainly not a film for all tastes and its low IMDb rating is only representative of just how divisive a movie it is. 'Melissa P.' is hardly a flawless motion picture, but there is more of interest to it than one might expect.

I saw this film for the presence in cast of Geraldine Chaplin. And it was just a very good motif, her elvira being just inspired way for define a wise grandmother portrait. But, scene , by scene, I was seduced by the fair, precise, honest image of a teen life. The vulnerability, the innocence about interests of the attractive guy , the last using, in cynic manner, this, the discover of her sexuality , as source of fear, later as tool for manipulate, the pragmatism of age and the diary are the good points of a film proposing a realistic image of a not so comfortable age and the mechanisms of adaptation.

In short, smart crafted story, nice acting, good moral.

I just learned this movie is based on a book. I must say I would never read it. The story line has absolutely no value -a young girl believes that just because her first sexual encounter was somehow traumatic, that made her instantly an expert on men and sex- it's really a poor subject. Besides, there are no interesting dialogs nor an appealing related story to support it. The main actress Valverde doesn't look young enough and most of the rest of the cast seems isolated. On the plus side, the movie is nicely shot, the background songs are appropriate and Geraldine Chaplin brings some brightness as the bohemian grandmother. Teenagers sexuality is a subject that should be treated with more depth otherwise the result is sooo vain.