Movie Review: Black Butterfly

2010, 1555 Filmwork
Not Rated, 95 minutes

Reviewed by Tasman Anderson
Australia

For the first time since I started contributing to Teen Voices, I’m actually disappointed in a film that I’m reviewing.

Black Butterfly, directed by Mark Harris, had such amazing potential to be one of the best rape revenge films of all times. The movie follows the life of 16-year-old swimmer Ariel Simms who is preparing to enter the Olympics. However, just when her life couldn’t get any better, she is viciously raped by one of the police officers who works with her Dad. She then begins to fall apart, pushing her friends, family, and swim coach away. As the movie progresses, we see Ariel slowly disappear until she is nothing but a shell of her former self. It isn’t until she ends up on life support after nearly drowning that her loved ones find out what happened to her and try to cope—not always in a positive manner.

I had high hopes that this film would be a masterpiece when I first got my hands on it. Unfortunately, there were a few things that really distracted from the plot. There was an overuse of background music that at times made it difficult to understand the dialogue. In addition, there was a painfully obvious lack of emotion between the characters, especially during the climax of the film. However, it wasn’t all bad—in fact, far from it.

There were some beautiful life lessons within this film. For example, the fact that no matter what happened, or how Ariel treated them, her family remained by her side until the every end was inspiring. And I loved how the director also showed the close relationship between the Caucasian police officer and the African American father.

Although this film may not have lived up to my expectations, it’s not necessarily bad. If you are after a movie about strength, courage, and resilience, then you’ll definitely want to give Black Butterfly a go.