The Assault (2014)

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Blistering performances.

Lifetime Movie inspired by the 2012 Steubenville High School rape case. Cheerleader Vega attempts suicide by self-immolation, setting into motion events that could make the community's beloved football team accountable for a very serious crime. Very dramatic for the better. Still, way too cookie-cutter in terms of structure, and the story unravels more like a mystery/thriller than a drama with something important to say. There's also the need to explain too much, indicating an underestimation of the viewer. Khandi Alexander is memorable as Detective Jodi Miller. Buckner's first role in seven years. Good if you have nothing better to do.**½ (out of four)

Lifetime does a lot of movies warning kids of what can happen if they aren't careful, and most of them present a realistic story that might actually happen that way. This movie isn't one of those. Still, the message is right and the story is interesting enough, even if it is totally unbelievable. Also, the acting and directing are decent enough. While I feel the father could have been just a little more devastated than he was presented, the portrayal was far better than the usual rabid angry dad most such movies would have. The main problem I have with the movie that I cannot believe the story presented would ever happen that way in real life.For parents: The subject matter is a gang rape ... enough said.Several issues I had with the plot:1) A girl pours gasoline over herself and lights a lighter, setting only her arm on fire. And, her ex-boyfriend tackles her and somehow puts out the fire without even a blanket? Gasoline is far more volatile than presented. Don't try this at home, kiddies.2) The girl is released from the hospital on some contrived-sounding explanation that her suicide attempt was some sort of temporary PTSD and the Doctors know it won't happen again? It sounds so made-up, it would have been far better if they simply didn't bother to explain.3) It is stated or implied that video evidence was posted to the internet, and somehow the culprits were able to retrieve it before the police could get a look at it or copies. Once it's out there, it's out there.4) The victim just happens to voice an objection which, by clipping the beginning and what comes after, can be made to look like she was consenting to be gang banged? I do not believe a girl confronted with that situation would say NO that way. It came across as a contrived piece of lazy writing.5) The culprits made video evidence? This was an absolute clear-cut case of gang rape, not some other form of sexual assault foolish high school kids might think was minor. Not one of the several perps objected to taking video of their crime?6) She screamed like a banshee. There were several people downstairs, and the music wasn't all that loud. Why didn't someone burst in on them?7) She was conscious through the entire event, and can remember none of it? Alcohol can cause some memory black-outs, but the whole thing? At no point did anyone say she was roofied. I don't recall the cops even checking? Date rape drugs remain in the hair until it grows out to the point it's cut away. We are talking a couple years the evidence would remain.

Although I generally do not sympathize with those who get too drunk to remember events, "The Assault" greatly succeeds in driving home the all-too-realistic point that there are individuals who take very unfair advantage of such vulnerabilities, use it for personal gain while going way out of line, and then scapegoat-make to deflect blame.In a perfect world, no one would get so drunk. On the other hand, society has its share of menaces and extremely bad influences regardless of states of intoxication involved. This portrayal is frighteningly accurate.With a decent actress portraying the main character, a convincing policewoman determined to bring the wrong-doers to justice, and a no-nonsense father rightfully willing to stick up for his daughter, "The Assault" is genuinely interesting, suspenseful, and cautiously entertaining from start to finish.

This was one of the funniest films I've seen in a while. It had everything one would expect from and love about a Lifetime movie: lead actors who can barely emote, terrible dialogue that oftentimes makes no sense, a heavy handed message that they hit you with harder than a football player hits his wife, homoerotic and incestuous undertones, misunderstandings of technological innovations, and I could go on and on about the great features of this film. It starts with the lead character (let's call her Cheerleader, who can remember the names of these people?) setting herself on fire at a football game and it just gets better from there. At the hospital the doctor tells us she was "sexually assaulted" which we can all tell means she was brutally gangraped by the whole football team. Eventually Cheerleader becomes BFFs BleachBlondDyke and they start sleeping together and they work with HeroicBlackPolicewoman to solve the case and everybody lives happily ever after. And it ended with a blatant lie of a statistic which is always fun.