Reviving Ophelia (film)

Plot

When LeAnne Dunley arrives home from work and catches her daughter Kelli performing a sexual act with a classmate, she arranges for Kelli to stay at her sister Marie's home when she is working. While staying there, Kelli notices that her cousin Elizabeth Jones is in an abusive relationship with her boyfriend, Mark, who experienced abuse as a child. While Elizabeth and Kelli are watching a movie at friend's house, Mark tracks Elizabeth down via her cellphone GPS, and tries to make her leave with him. He only backs off when Kelly runs outside. Another night, while Mark sneaks into Elizabeth's room through a window, Elizabeth tries to ask him about his ex-girlfriend (who, according to Kelli, became a "total psycho" after dating Mark), he gets angry and leaves. After Kelli returns to the house after taking a walk, Marie confronts Kelli about "sneaking out" of the house. Kelli says that she saw Mark climbing out of Elizabeth's bedroom window, but Elizabeth says she is lying. Marie believes Elizabeth, causing Kelli to run off.

While LeAnne and Marie are discussing Kelli's whereabouts, Marie receives a call that Elizabeth is at the hospital. Marie is unaware that Elizabeth had even left the house. At the hospital, Mark tells them that Elizabeth wanted to go out and look for Kelli. He swerved to avoid a dog and, as a result, Elizabeth hit her face on the dashboard of his car. When her parents leave, Mark apologizes to Elizabeth for losing his temper and hitting her. Elizabeth is grounded for leaving the house and ordered not to talk to or see Mark for two weeks. However, she continues to secretly see him. Following this, he sneaks into her bedroom again and they have sex. While at school, Kelli sees Elizabeth and Mark fooling around in the schoolyard and she bumps the spot on her face where Mark had hit her the other night and as she told Mark, Kelli hears it and runs to tell Marie, but ends up not saying anything. Elizabeth defends Mark's behavior, insisting that he loves her.

Mark becomes jealous of Elizabeth's interactions with Ty Benchley, a male classmate. While running through the school hallway to meet up with Mark, she accidentally drops her homework. Ty helps her pick it up and jokes around with her. Elizabeth looks up and sees that Mark has been watching her the whole time. She runs outside and tries to tell Mark that she is not flirting with Ty, but he punches her in the face and walks away. Kelli sees her bloodied face and walks her to the nurse's office. The principal tells Marie that Mark hit her, but Elizabeth is denying it by insisting that she fell. Elizabeth starts to see a psychiatrist and continues to deny any abuse while claiming Mark loves her. She pretends to break up with Mark but continues to secretly see him and will not be honest about any of her injuries for fear that police involvement will ruin Mark's life. Her parents are concerned, and Mark's abuse continues to escalate. Elizabeth receives a notification that a photo of her has been tagged on Facebook. The photo is of her with blood running down her face while saying "Wherefore art thou, Romeo?" Someone (presumably Mark) has taken a picture of her, edited it, and posted it on Facebook as a joke. Elizabeth is shocked after seeing this.

During a consultation with her psychiatrist, Elizabeth observes a list of abuse indicators displayed on the psychiatrist's computer and identifies that Mark's actions correspond to every item listed. Later that evening, Mark inquires aggressively about her lack of response to his calls and text messages. Upon returning home, Elizabeth discovers Mark in her room and informs him that their relationship is definitively concluded. He refuses to accept it, threatening to kill himself and wrapping his arms tightly around her. He says he won't let go until she takes him back. She yells for her parents and he bolts out the window as her parents come in. Mark sends her a text message that says she doesn't deserve to live.

Elizabeth and her parents obtain a restraining order against Mark, who must now remain fifty feet away from her at all times. Terry, Mark's abusive father, is so furious about the situation (and also suspicious of his son's behavior) that he threatens to beat up Elizabeth's father (for putting his son in jail), but Mark and Marie break it up. Later, when Kelli and Elizabeth go to see Cody—another student at the school—and his band play at a coffee shop, Mark shows up and pulls out a gun, saying that he cannot live without Elizabeth and is going to kill her and then himself, and also threatens to kill Kelli for ruining everything. After Elizabeth talks Mark into dropping the gun, the police show up and arrest him.

Elizabeth is later found by her mother in the kitchen, baking cookies for Kelli, who then helps Elizabeth cook them.

Cast