This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Brilliant and touching

I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Ellie Perkins (Reese Witherspoon) ventures onto the scary Guthrie property and discovers Alice Guthrie (Patricia Arquette) locked up living in the shed. Alice is deaf and her father is a violent drunk who beats her mother. Ellie and her brother Sammy befriends the isolated Alice hiding their friendship from their overbearing father Jack Perkins (Beau Bridges).There are two understandable problems in this otherwise very touching movie with great actors. The first problem is the novice directing from Diane Keaton. This is a washed out looking uninspired visually movie. It's not unexpected, but it's still disappointing nonetheless. The second problem is the performance or overacting from Patricia Arquette. She reminds me of Nell (Jodie Foster). It's a hard balance to strike. It's always said that drunk acting is the hardest. This is probably a close second. It'd be better if she was more reserved. All the flailing just seems too much. Also she's got a great haircut for somebody living in a shed.The good points are the acting. Standout from this is Reese Witherspoon. Beau Bridges and William McNamara are both great. It's a touching story. It's nice to see Alice grow as a character instead of just constantly be a victim. With more skills behind the camera, this could have been a much better film.

Don't forget about this film.. Listen to your inner heart and you will experience an extraordinary movie. Patricia Arquette is wonderful as the lovely outsider girl. As soon as she gets familiar with the other kids.. she shows her natural talent for social behaviour. A love movie for the higher sensitive people. But don't start crying as I do, when she gets the hearing aid and for the first time were able to hear the birds singing in the woods. Good script very good camera (thats rare) plausible and very good actors and a great story. All in all an extraordinary film and one of P. Arquettes greatest!! Why can't we get more of those movies..

Was genuinely moved by the content of this tale of extremes of human nature. The barbarity of keeping a young girl in a shed versus the humanitarian sincerity was handled well by actress-director Diane Keaton. Patricia Arquette in particular must have found it difficult to play her role as the disadvantaged AND hearing-impaired Alice, uttering her lines as a deaf woman... with all the embarrassment that must go with it. Perhaps I have been alone too long. Or perhaps - over-educated and right after yet another vicious superpower vs. small nation war, with the subsequent revelations of bestial cruelty - I am still surprised by humankind's inhumanity to humankind. But there are pinpricks of light out there, somewhere. And with that thought, Humankind still has, at the very least, some hope...

A young girl is locked away in a feed outhouse way out in the country because her redneck father thinks she is off her rocker. When 2 neighbor kids befriend her she begins to come out of her shell and slowly become functional after years as a recluse. Very good picture.