Melanie is, simply and unalterably, who she is and has always been. She cannot effectively assert herself. She cannot control other people's impression of her. She cannot draw people close to her, or even get them on her side. This applies to her out-of-view family (we know them only from overhearing her end of unrewarding telephone conversations with them), her students, her staff peers and her neighbors and would-be friends. <br /><br />Emotional isolation has never felt so completely real on film. Nothing is over-dramatized. No scenery chewing here, Thank God. No dishonest cutaways to a colorful fantasy world inside the main character's head. No Hollywood situations or developments. What happens throughout feels inevitable, and thus real.<br /><br />I was turned off, in the beginning, by the shot-on-video character of this film, because by default it seemed to mean a dispensing with classic film language, and a less articulate camera. --And there are times I thought a score would have helped. But eventually the deliberately flattened style (call it Bressonian) grew on me. I realized the film wasn't an over-hyped thriller (as the video box more or less lead me to believe) that needed or invited a lot of flash style in the telling. Directness is the best decision the makers could have made in a vehicle built to carry emotional truth.<br /><br />I recommend this film for people who want something emotionally naked, at times painful to watch, with a psychological preoccupation. If you look at Melanie and see some piece of yourself in real life, this film will probably bring you down. On the other hand, it might also broaden your view of yourself and the world, and impress you again with the fact that no one is weird; people simply are.