Am I the only one...
Who thought this film and the title were completely unrelated if you consider the content of the film? Yes, ok... They did meet online. She did meet a boy online. This happened to be an extremely minor detail in the storyline, having little to do with the plot twist or the issues that played out throughout the film.
So (unrealistically of course) this teenage high school girl meets who she believes to be a young male "college" student on a social networking website. Little does she know, and apparently she cannot detect his lack of "engineering student swagger" the way her family friend is able, he is in fact not a college student at all but a prisoner who is soon to be released. When this comes to attention not too far into the film, it goes over rather smoothly for my taste as to her lack of concern with him lying than his conviction of a crime. The problem lies within her overbearingly psychotic mother who is unaware the daughter she is raising is not 12 years old, but a 17 year old high school senior, turning 18 in a month. (which happens to be the LONGEST month I've ever witnessed in a film, since the timeline portrayed did not match the supposed "month until her birthday" detail) The ex convict boyfriend, whom we are all expecting to be a horrible and dangerous young man turns out to be a pretty decent guy other than the fact that he is mixed up with the wrong group of people and gives into the easy road when his history hinders his progression in society. As a matter of fact, the only real negative sign that this young man was someone she should never have "met online" was the fact that he was an EX CON and the mother needed no further information to dismiss the idea of him. Ridiculous. Now am I saying I would be thrilled if my daughter was to bring home a boyfriend in 13 years when she turn 17 years old, of course not. But would I act the way the mother in film acted when she became aware of the situation? Definitely not. I am not really sure what the morals of the film were, nor what point they were trying to get across to the viewers either? The only lesson I learned in this film was this:
If your ex convict boyfriend has a friend who was recently murdered, requests you stay at the house and then leaves to seek revenge on the man who's murdered his friend... Listen.
The rebellion that you're so inclined to seek out in the relationship with your mother, your schoolmates, your teachers and now your boyfriend has lead you into a very unfortunate situation. Apparently no one taught this girl the importance of following directions, and how sometimes it can be for your own good.