Gimme Shelter

Gimme Shelter is the tragically beautiful story of Abigail "Apple" Bailey, a pregnant teenager trying to escape her life. Her mother is a drug addict. She's been in and out of foster homes since she was twelve. She's been physically and emotionally abused her whole life. She's never met her father. Her only connection to him is a letter he wrote before she was born.

I'll keep this relatively spoiler free.

The movie starts with Apple cutting off all her hair, stealing all her mom's money, and escaping in a cab with her mother screaming after her "you need me." Apple goes looking for her father, and finds him in Jersey. He works on Wall Street, and has a wife and kids. He agrees to let her stay with him for a while, until she can get on her feet. But she takes off again after discovering that she's pregnant, and being told she can only stay with her father if she gets an abortion. After several weeks, she steals a car and gets in an accident. She wakes up in the hospital, where she talks to a priest. She's then placed in a home for pregnant teenagers who want to keep her baby.

This movie starts off grim, and stay that way for most of the movie. She breaks into the home's owner's office with the other girls at one point, which turns out to be a major bonding moment for all of them, as they read each other what's written in their files.

I thought this movie was a very realistic portrayal of how hard it is for someone with a drug addicted parent. I found Apple's mother June (Rosario Dawson, in a stunning portrayal of this drug addled, abusive woman) particularly pitiful. She always has dark circles under her eyes, and she's thin as a rail. She stalks Apple throughout the movie, trying to convince her to come home. She tells her daughter that she wasn't much older than Apple when she got pregnant, and that "nobody wanted me to have you."

The last half of the movie is so moving, and so beautiful, when Apple has her baby, and finally begins to heal from her past.

 Vanessa Hudgens shone in this movie. She was adorable in all three High School Musical movies, but this showed that she has real acting chops. Her repeated mantra of "I'm not scared... I'm not scared..." made my stomach clench every time she said it. She gives forth an extremely convincing performance, especially in the dinner scene with Brendan Fraser (her father), where she yells at him for never being there for her. Another one of the scenes where she surprised me was when she's in the hospital, with the priest. He's trying to convince her that God is looking after her, but she shoots back with "Where was God when I was suffering and being abused all these years?"


Yes, this movie made me cry. Yes, I would watch it again. It's a rare combination of heartbreaking and inspiring at the same time, without managing to be preachy. A beautiful movie.