Secret Cutting

Infobox Film
name = Secret Cutting


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director = Norma Bailey
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starring = Sean Young
Kimberlee Peterson
Robert Wisden
Rhea Perlman
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released = 2000
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country = Canada / U.S.A.
language = English
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imdb_id = 0231441

"Secret Cutting" is a 2000 Made-for-TV movie directed by Norma Bailey, starring Kimberlee Peterson and Rhea Perlman, about a self-injurer teenager, focusing on and her relation with family, friend and acquaintances.

Plot summary

Shy Dawn Cottrell (Kimberlee Peterson) is a teenager who attempts to please the world but feels like she can please no one. Unlike most people, who are able to express extreme emotions outwardly through words or through tears, Dawn's only mechanism for channeling her pain is through self-injury. This physical pain brought on by cutting or burning herself secures for Dawn relief from the emotional pain that she otherwise would be unable to release. The film provides an insightful look into a disorder that for years has been disregarded or shunned because people simply were not ready to deal with it.

Her life consists of a continuous series of disappointments. With few, if any, real friends at school, and a family so dysfunctional it's coming apart at the seams, Dawn finds solace in being able to control at least one thing in her life - her secret cutting. Her story begins when she is asked by the "popular" crowd to design their float for the upcoming school carnival. Anxious for some type of social acceptance from the group, Dawn jumps at the opportunity, but her hopes for acceptance are shattered when she overhears the girls snickering and making fun of her in the girls' bathroom. Unable to deal with the pain, Dawn runs to a private corner and begins to cut herself.

At home, her life at home is just as unstable as her life at school. There are obvious tensions between her parents, Joyce and Russell, (Sean Young and Robert Wisden, respectively) who not only seem disconnected from each other but also demonstrate little interest in changing that reality. When Dawn tries to connect with them individually, Russell seems unable to handle any type of intimacy with his daughter and puts up an air of passivity. Joyce, on the other hand, is incapable of discussing anything without relating it back to herself, thus constantly taking the focus away from Dawn, where it should be.

Tragically, Dawn attempts to find salvation from these two shaky worlds in the arms of a 19-year-old musician who in reality has little interest in her as a person and really only cares about how she can satisfy him physically.

Back at school, another series of humiliating experiences leaves Dawn running to find solitude so she can again numb her emotional pain by inflicting herself with physical pain. But this time she is caught: first by Lorraine, another social outsider in the high school with whom she can certainly relate, and then by a teacher, who calls Dawn's parents to the school to address the matter. Humiliated that their facade as a perfect all-American family has been shattered, Dawn's mother again brings the focus of the situation back to her by insisting that she does not want to be blamed for Dawn's actions. Meanwhile, Dawn's father remains distant and emotionless as usual. Ironically, the new strains that her condition has put on her family leave Dawn further unable to cope, and she winds up in the emergency room after seriously burning herself with a cigarette lighter in a desperate attempt to alleviate the stress.

Lorraine introduces Dawn to her psychiatrist, Dr. Parella (Rhea Perlman) who seems to be the only understanding voice in the torment of Dawn's volatile and painful world. Realizing there is no alternative for Dawn, her parents agree to allow her to begin counseling with Dr. Parella. Through counseling, Dawn slowly begins to understand that the nature of her disorder stems not simply from her constant feelings of abandonment by the people she loves, but also from her inability to express this pain through verbal channels. Instead, Dawn uses cutting to communicate what she feels inside. Her inability to communicate individually with her parents (as well as their inability to communicate with one another) leaves any hope of emotional support for Dawn unattainable.

Triggered by the news that her friend Lorraine has been brutally beaten by her mother's boyfriend (and by her own mother's refusal to take her to the hospital to visit Lorraine), Dawn loses control and again winds up in the emergency room after having brutally slashed her body. Joyce, feeling she can no longer bear the blame for her daughter's condition, decides it would be better for her to simply leave her family, and she does. Her departure finally triggers a change in Dawn. When Dr. Parella comes to visit her in the hospital after her mother walks out, Dawn breaks down into tears, something which before then she had been unable to do. Dr. Parella points out that if tears can take the place of blood, then Dawn has at last begun the long road to recovery.

After being released, Dawn goes to visit Lorraine, who is still in the hospital recovering. Lorraine informs Dawn that her mother broke up with her boyfriend and Dawn tells Lorraine about her mother leaving and what Dr. Parella had said. Lorraine then tells Dawn that the popular kids at their school needed to enjoy being popular while they could, but her and Dawn's time is just beginning.

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