When I decided to watch the movie, I was aware there would be child abuse. I expected it to be criticized and actually fought against, but it wasn't.
Everyone is aware the girl suffers abuse that goes from name-calling to severe beatings from her "father" and "grandmother" - which are not even biological or adoptive - but even after RELUCTANTLY helping the girl, the officer agrees to give the child back to her father when he stops drinking - and he doesn't! - as if the girl were a car. Later, when the chief is being interrogated, the detective even asks why the chief kept the girl in her house permanently and not temporarily. Seriously?
Later on, the "father" accuses the chief of leaving the girl for another woman, the girl goes to the officer's house barefoot and hurt and confronts her, the chief responds by slapping the girl and kicking the girl out of her home, leaving her to receive more abuse by her "father". And the chief never apologizes for that.
Later, the girl realizes that no one will really do anything in order to protect unless something even more extreme happens, and that she needs to make some sort of sacrifice in order to get rid of her "father". The girl records her "father" abusing her in a call to another police officer - and it's later made clear it's not even the first time he did that, and the bastard finally goes to jail and loses the ownership of her. Even then, the male police officer - and a reviewer here - accuses THE GIRL of being a monster because she incriminated her "father" and maybe caused the death of her "grandmother" in order to survive. That is depressingly messed up. What was the girl supposed to do? Suffer more abuse and maybe die in their hands?
Unfortunately, a lot of people have zero empathy for children. I'm disappointed that no one in the reviews criticized the abuse, the neglect and the victim-blaming. They preferred to focus on the chief's orientation, breakup and alcohol problem rather than in that awful situation.
And one review even says that the original plan of the author was not even to focus on child abuse. In my opinion, if he made a movie about an LGBT police officer dealing with a breakup and there was a solution, the movie would be much more likeable.
Everyone is aware the girl suffers abuse that goes from name-calling to severe beatings from her "father" and "grandmother" - which are not even biological or adoptive - but even after RELUCTANTLY helping the girl, the officer agrees to give the child back to her father when he stops drinking - and he doesn't! - as if the girl were a car. Later, when the chief is being interrogated, the detective even asks why the chief kept the girl in her house permanently and not temporarily. Seriously?
Later on, the "father" accuses the chief of leaving the girl for another woman, the girl goes to the officer's house barefoot and hurt and confronts her, the chief responds by slapping the girl and kicking the girl out of her home, leaving her to receive more abuse by her "father". And the chief never apologizes for that.
Later, the girl realizes that no one will really do anything in order to protect unless something even more extreme happens, and that she needs to make some sort of sacrifice in order to get rid of her "father". The girl records her "father" abusing her in a call to another police officer - and it's later made clear it's not even the first time he did that, and the bastard finally goes to jail and loses the ownership of her. Even then, the male police officer - and a reviewer here - accuses THE GIRL of being a monster because she incriminated her "father" and maybe caused the death of her "grandmother" in order to survive. That is depressingly messed up. What was the girl supposed to do? Suffer more abuse and maybe die in their hands?
Unfortunately, a lot of people have zero empathy for children. I'm disappointed that no one in the reviews criticized the abuse, the neglect and the victim-blaming. They preferred to focus on the chief's orientation, breakup and alcohol problem rather than in that awful situation.
And one review even says that the original plan of the author was not even to focus on child abuse. In my opinion, if he made a movie about an LGBT police officer dealing with a breakup and there was a solution, the movie would be much more likeable.