Review: Towelhead

I should've known what I was getting myself into with this movie when, before I even walked into the theater, I was given a focus group survey and asked to fill it out before and after the film. Looking at some of the questions, I was asked whether I liked Aaron Eckhart less after watching it, whether I was offended on a number of levels, and whether I would actually (they used the incredibly loaded word "actually") recommend the film to a friend. I mean, given the title and the subject matter, I knew this was going to be incisive at the very least, but this threw me way off guard.

I'm getting ahead of myself, though. "Towelhead," based on the novel by Alicia Erian, is the story of Jasira Maroun (Summer Bishil), a 13-year-old Lebanese girl living in Gulf War I-era Texas. The film starts off with her mother's (Maria Bello) boyfriend shaving her pubic hair to prevent her from being made fun of at public pools. When her mother finds out, she sends Jasira to live with her traditional, stern father Rifat (Peter Macdissi). On their first morning together, she walks into the kitchen in her semi-skimpy pajamas for breakfast, and Rifat slaps her across the face and tells her to clothe herself.

Compounding the issue is her neighbor, Army reservist Mr. Vuoso (Eckhart), who hires Jasira to watch his son, for reasons none too noble. His son insults Jasira, but also exposes her to Vuoso's porn collection. As a result, Jasira accidentally discovers masturbation, and soon begins to engage in it compulsively, even wiggling back and forth rapidly in her desk chair in class. Vuoso is a slimy bastard in every sense, and this is evident from his first scene onscreen, but for Jasira, who gets called every racist name in the book at school and has no family to turn to, he's an island in a sea of pain. Soon enough, though, he causes her even more pain, both figurative and literal, and Jasira is torn between her love for the attention he shows her and absolute fear of him. Her only saving grace is her other neighbor, Melina (Toni Collette), who sniffs out what's going on almost immediately and begins to care for Jasira like a daughter, even as she's pregnant with her own.

To be sure, there isn't much stiffer material out there than the sexual awakening and exploitation of a 13-year-old girl, but it's a great credit to this film that nothing feels like exploitation. It could have easily become so in the hands of a less talented filmmaker, but Alan Ball ("American Beauty") takes Jasira's story and makes it relatable and painful. The latter goes two ways, really; not only are there some scenes that will test the audience's tolerance, but the film as a whole captures the naivete and awkwardness of adolescent sexuality so accurately that you'd be hard-pressed not to spend the entire film cringing.

What really defines this movie, though, is the phenomenal cast. I couldn't cite anyone else without starting with Bishil, who gives what should be a star-making performance as Jasira. She was eighteen when the film was shot, but looks not a day over thirteen, and it shows; she manages to be doe-eyed and radiant even as horrifying things are happening to and around her. Macdissi is stellar and enraging as her father, who does have her best interests at heart, but is too blinded by his own biases to see who the good and bad people around her truly are. I have met mothers like Bello and Collette's characters, and both actresses, always so wonderful, hit every little nuance of these women right on the head.

I have to give the most credit to Aaron Eckhart, though. A role as sickening as his (and believe me, it is sickening) takes true courage for an actor to take on. Even more fascinating is the fact that he would take on a role of this nature in such close proximity to his star-making turn in "The Dark Knight." His breakthrough performance in "In the Company of Men" was similar in sadistic nature, but this is heavy, heavy stuff, and he must be credited for making Vuoso's actions explicable, without coming off as even remotely sympathetic.

Ball has always trafficked in giving a voice to the unheard, be it the silently suffering suburban father in "American Beauty" or the oppressed vampires on his new television series "True Blood." Now, he's taken on a young girl with nowhere to turn for answers, in a time where people look right through her and see nothing but a war she doesn't even understand. Everything about this film is meant to provoke thought; I don't think it simply exists to provoke, as many critics have said, as it is handled with a class and delicacy that a movie simply meant to enrage could not have.