SnoopyStyle Agnes 'Apple' Bailey (Vanessa Hudgens) has another fight with her drug-addicted mother June Bailey (Rosario Dawson). She tries to see her absent biological father Tom Fitzpatrick (Brendan Fraser) and gets arrested. He is a wealthy broker with a young upper class family. The troubled Apple wants him to get her out of the foster system. She stays with them until they find out that she's pregnant. She gets arrested for stealing and crashing a creep's car. Priest Father McCarthy (James Earl Jones) sends her to a shelter run by Kathy (Ann Dowd) with other girls like Cassie (Emily Meade).This is not a subtle movie. Vanessa Hudgens is obviously trying to stretch beyond her pretty looks. I'm of two minds about the effectiveness. While I admire her attempt, she may be trying too hard. The same can be said about Dawson. There are big swings here and I appreciate them. There is a need to structure the drama. It comes off as a rambling narrative. The reveal of the real inspiration helps a little but doesn't fix this central problem. This is a flawed indie with some intriguing swings by the two actresses.

estebangonzalez10 "I'm just asking you for a little time."Vanessa Hudgens' latest film, Gimme Shelter, is based on an inspiring true story in which she plays a pregnant teenager named Apple, who has been abused and felt unwanted all her life. I'm sure the true story is an inspiring one, and I admire Apple's strength to continue fighting despite all the hardships she went through. I also admire those people who took her in and helped her, but just because the real life story is inspiring that doesn't mean I enjoyed this film. The story has several flaws and feels very manipulative. It never felt authentic and I really had a hard time believing Hudgens' performance. An inspirational film should try to be less manipulative and feel more authentic and real, but the characters in this film never felt real. The dialogue in the film was weak and everything felt rushed in such a way that there was no time to delve into what led to some of the characters changes in behaviors. It seemed like director, Ron Krauss, was rushing the story to its feel good ending without really stopping to analyze the pain and hardships Apple went through. These films are usually hard to make and very few are able to succeed in feeling authentic and this wasn't the exception. I wasn't sold by Hudgens' performance and that also hurt my appreciation for the film. It's a film with good intentions and an inspiring tale, but they failed to transmit it in a compelling way.Brendan Fraser plays Apple's father who she has never met because he was only 19 years old when he left her mother, June (played by Rosario Dawson) pregnant. June hasn't been a good mother figure for Apple as she spends her time getting high so Apple has been in and out of shelters and foster care all her life. She has been abused several times, so she finally decides to leave her violent mother and find her dad. She finds him and discovers he's a big shot in Wall Street. Stephanie Szostak plays his wife and together they have two young children. They take Apple in, but have trouble coping with the fact she is pregnant. When they try to convince her to have an abortion, Apple is back in the streets again. After an accident, a nice Priest (James Earl Jones) visits her and convinces her to go to a shelter run by a nun named Kathy (Ann Dowd) who specializes in treating pregnant teenagers. This is where Apple finds a loving family for the first time in her life. The performances in this film were all hurt by the weak script. I didn't understand Fraser's character very well either and the story failed to transmit why he and his wife had a change of heart. Ann Dowd plays a very different character here than the one she does in The Leftovers so it was nice to see her in a much friendlier role. Rosario Dawson was convincing as a junky and abusive mother. There is not much more I can say about this film, it wasn't terrible but it wasn't good either.

Roland E. Zwick Written and directed by Ronald Krausse, "Gimme Shelter" proves that good intentions and earnestness alone can't guarantee the quality of a film.The screenplay is based on the true story of a 16-year-old girl who goes by the name Apple (the talented Vanessa Hudgens) whose life could easily have served as the basis for a Dickens novel had it been set a century- and-a-half in the past. Born to an abusive, drug-addicted single mother (an uglied-up Rosario Dawson) who wants her daughter around only for the welfare checks she brings in, Apple has been kicked around from one foster home to the next, when she isn't trying to re-connect with her uber-rich biological father (Brendan Fraser) or living on the streets, that is.Krausse sure pours on the pathos and the suffering, but the movie as a whole isn't as compelling as it should be, partly because, while there is a certain grittiness in the look and feel of the picture, the episodic nature of the tale doesn't allow for any real development of the secondary characters, leaving them stereotypical and flat. They simply remain off-screen for too long a time to register much of an impact on the audience. Apple's absurdly callous "step-mother" (Stephanie Szostak) and a kindly priest (James Earl Jones), who offers the hand of friendship to Apple in her time of greatest need, feel particularly two-dimensional and under-developed. Moreover, the dialogue frequently undercuts the naturalism of the piece by having the characters spell out in words rather than through indirection and action what it is we're supposed to be taking away with us from the movie. All those who made "Gimme Shelter" definitely had their hearts in the right place, but I think this is one of those instances where a little less fidelity to the actual story and a little more focus might have resulted in a more effective drama.

nofyvm-2 Initially, I wasn't sure what to expect from this feature... Talk about deeply moved, and emotionally rocked!!! Rosario Dawson was showing some of her finest work, as a drug addict, prostitute, and unfortunately a supposed mother. Then Brendan Fraser playing the father from opposite ends of the spectrum, excellent!!! I had to add a review because I choose a lot of what I watch from reviews that I read on IMDb, including this movie.What can I say about Vanessa Hudgens? Bravo!!! At points you could just see the flower blooming, with what will be a solid acting career. I was also pleased with the young supporting cast that came in a later stages in the movie.Go out and rent this movie! Especially if you are a fan of quality, real life drama.