On The Doll

Not to be confused with the UK expression “On the dole” meaning collecting unemployment benefit; On The Doll is a reference for sexual abuse, an expression delivered by a psychiatrist to an abused child asking them to indicate where on the doll they were touched. So from this basis alone I guess it’s understandable for you to think twice about seeing this movie, as it has gone into an area of the world that we don’t like to think exists. To avoid this movie however would be sad because for the most part its incredibly well written, nicely pieced together, and at times quite amusing.

 

Laid out like pieces of a puzzle the story is told from the angle of several relatively innocent parties who have either been abused or sadly are about to be. The idea of the movie is designed to show the effect that sexual abuse can have on a young mind, changing what might ordinarily be a normal way of life. A big factor about the movie is that it shows that all the victims of the movie are betrayed by someone in a trust position, a carer, a relative, a teacher. When you are in a situation that someone is trusted with you, and you have that trust abused the repercussions of this have far reaching effects.

 

The movie is shot with a grey scale imagery, this allows the movie from offset to be sunken to sombre depths within seconds of the movie beginning. The opening scene features two schoolgirls chatting, one putting lipstick on with a penis shaped lipstick. The wider picture shows these two young girls sat legs apart so someone in a nearby car can see up their skirts. This is not designed to show certain deviant behaviour from the girls aspect, but to show that once you reach a certain age it’s normal to experiment in certain things that give you a specific feeling inside, in this case showing off their underwear to a stranger is both exciting and dangerous, I’m sure that at one moment in time we have all engaged in a certain dangerous sexual situation. Sadly this little dally into sexual awakening is the point that changes the two girls lives forever.

 

Other victims of the movie are less reluctant or willing to enter into the sexual foray; one young man sexually abused by an uncle is thrown into the porn industry, working in a seedy magazine that publishes contact details for prostitutes. While others are forced into prostitution, and others are so traumatised that they find it difficult if not impossible to have sex with anyone, even those that they truly love.

 

Humour comes from the angle of the psychiatrist specifically who has issues well beyond the depths the movie allows us to see. The unnamed psychiatrist is played by one time A-Lister Teresa Russell, and she seems more troubled than anyone else in the movie encouraging people to physically fight back against abuse, encouraging them to take “final” revenge, and being so hung up that she won’t allow anyone to touch the dolls from which the movie’s title derives.

 

 Watching the movie develop is an interesting path, you so want not to get drawn into this movie but you find yourself a helpless victim pulled into the heart of the matter. And it’s not all doom and gloom, you are allowed to see the forming of the most beautiful and innocent relationships, innocent relationships founded on the background of extreme sex and deviant behaviour. It’s those innocent relationships and the characters contained that you feel most passionate about.

 

Innocence and harshness go hand in hand with On The Doll, and I won’t deny there are some fairly graphic scenes, one man is repeatedly punched in the testicles, but not as punishment, this is for pleasure; a thought that as a man and a man who has at times received sharp pain to that area actually makes me feel sick just thinking about it. And of course far worse than anything else your never far away from the subject of rape.

 

What really lets the movie down is that for 90 minutes it plods along fairly nicely, it’s not comfortable viewing granted, but it is a really attention absorbing piece. Then suddenly out of the blue come’s the scene where all the stories rather like a cogged wheel all connect together.  This connection of stories seems almost comedic, while being again painfully harsh at the same time, most of all it seems very rushed indeed almost like the director suddenly realised he needed to wrap everything up.

 

On The Doll is a low budget movie, it looks visibly cheap the greyscale imagery adding to this general feel, but beneath this cheapness are some pretty good performances from actors and actresses we are all familiar with, though not necessarily by name. If you enjoy watching movies On The Doll has the same sort of impact that Fun, Elephant, and The Kite Runner had on their various niche areas, it’s a classic movie that may not be appreciated now, but certainly will in the future.