Within minutes of the start of the film our lady is skinny dipping in the river behind her newly rented summer house. There’s a very voyeuristic shot of her from across the lake, which feels even more so, since we’ve already seen her naked in close-up; the distance isn’t to spare her nudity, even in this early stage—it’s to show that someone is already watching.
Time and again, this film suggests there is much more to rape than the actual act. There is an interesting sort of foreplay rape that begins soon after the woman arrives in the small town. All of the times that the woman is victimized, in various ways, and forced to participate in the games of the men, form this foreplay rape. The foreplay is in the catcalling, in the interruption of her writing with constant childish speedboat antics, and perhaps most obviously, in the theft of her boat while she is still in it. While none of these acts are overtly sexual, it is clear that the rape has already begun. The woman is not in control of the story of her life—a theme that she runs with later as the second half of the movie unfolds.
For a subject that seems fairly commonly addressed, at least on CSI and similar shows, rape is still polarizing. Some people just can’t watch it. While the CSI view of rape is generally very clinical and filled with medical jargon and a clear victim and bad guy, watching a rape scene is entirely different and usually not done very well. I think this film does it amazingly well, which for me means convincingly, without seeming unnecessary.
The idea of the individual viewer’s threshold for any disturbing subject comes up again and again at our house. It seems like we’re always having people over and attempting to coax them into watching something that’s just a bit beyond the pale for them. One of the things that is difficult for some people to watch is rape. Maybe I wouldn’t be able to watch rape scenes if I had been raped, so in a way I feel a bit guilty for the strange brand of catharsis I feel when I watch a convincing rape scene. Every time the subject arises I recall statistics from my undergrad days, stating that 1 in 4 women are raped at some point, and while watching I feel both fear and relief that it hasn’t happened to me. I think this film really establishes the concept of rape as a change in a person’s master status. Instead of thinking of oneself as “white” or “female” or “a writer,” the first thing that a rape victim identifies herself as is “rape victim,” —a point that is driven home when our protagonist’s master status changes once more from “rape victim” to “murderer.”
The viewer or voyeur question is relevant for the entirety of the film. As she’s being chased through the forest, there’s a shot of an “innocent” bystander, who doesn’t even flinch as the pursuit continues. In each individual instance of rape, there are three voyeurs, whether holding down our victim or simply watching as her broken body is beaten down further. Are we also accomplices?
