Bruckner is just fantastic, in one moment so vulnerable and fragile that you want to reach into the screen to hug her, in another so wise and strong that you can hardly believe she's in high school. Complementing her performance is a great supporting cast. David Strathairn, as the teacher who befriends Meg, becomes a mentor and therapist to her, and urges her to write, is wonderful with a complex character. As Meg's troubled little sister Lily, Regan Arnold is amazing for so young an actress, although her story line is too maudlin.
It's a very depressing movie; in fact, I got really angry at writer-director Karen Moncrieff for what she does to Meg in the movie. I could see it coming, and I was thinking, "Goddammit, don't you go that way, don't you dare hurt her like that." Now I wish I had gone to one of the screenings where Moncrieff took questions afterwards, because I would have opened a Price Club can of whup-ass on her.
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