REVIEW: Towelhead

TOWELHEAD

By: Lee Rice

Despite what the main title might have you believe, ‘Towlhead’ isn’t about prejudice. Oh sure, there is one minor subplot about name-calling, but the vast majority of the film concerns a 13 year-old girl dealing with her sexual awakening while living under the roof of her abusive Lebanese father.

If anything can be said of ‘Towelhead‘, it is that it is an intensely unsettling movie. Although sexuality is evident in almost every aspect of our modern society, it seems surprisingly rare that anybody talks candidly about how children learn about sex from the world around them, and how they apply that knowledge without knowing the consequences of their actions. ‘Towelhead’ accomplishes this goal with gusto, but it also seems to seriously lack the impact of other ‘coming of age’ movies.

Everybody does a fantastic job in terms of acting. All the performances are intensely realistic, and Summer Bashil manages to give one of the best performances of the year as Jasira Maroun, a young girl confused and frightened by the way her world seems to be changing around her. The one thing that counts against her is that her performance may be too realistic.

In other movies about children becoming adults, like the classics ‘Saturday Night Fever’ and ‘Stand By Me,’ the main characters always seem to be larger than life. When compared to those characters, Jasira just doesn’t seem all that interesting even though we may be able to identify with her more easily. That, and she never seems to take charge of her situation until the last part of the movie. Even then, it seems like she lets most of the people around her do the talking for her. Basically, the main character sometimes feels as if she’s only there so that things can happen to her.

That leads us to the film’s second major problem, the fact that there seem to be too many different plot threads with too many different dominant characters. I understand the need to make it seem as if Jasira is being pulled in several different directions at once, but it seemed positively unrealistic that there would be that many different people with direct influence over her life. It seriously strained my willful suspension of disbelief to think that anyone’s life could be so totally dysfunctional in every aspect, and it made Jasira seem like even less of a dominant character.

The film’s second finest performance goes to Aaron Eckhart, fresh off his role as Harvey Dent/Two Face in ‘The Dark Knight’. His role as a prejudiced army reservist/pedophile that lives next door has many subtle layers, and he is fast shaping up to become a serious Hollywood player.

‘Towelhead’ is disturbing, and at times it can be difficult to watch, but it still says a lot that needs to be said about how children discover their sexuality in this world, and the dangers and pitfalls that they face as they do so.

Don’t go to ‘Towelhead’ if you are looking for a good time. Instead, go if you’re looking for an education on your children’s lives.

Final Verdict- B-