Havoc (2005)

Havoc (2005)

starring Anne Hathaway

directed by Barbara Kopple

85 minutes

High school student Allison Lang (Anne Hathaway) gets interested in Hector after he embarrasses her poser boyfriend. She seeks out Hector who deals drugs and comes from a poorer section of Los Angeles than she and her boyfriend do. Everything seems fairly low key until Allison and her friend Emily decide that they want to join Hector's gang. 

Allison and Emily agree to go along with the initiation ritual which involves having sex with (potentially) multiple members of the gang. It gets to be a bit too intense for both of them and the two teens leave before it gets any worse.

Emily reports the incident to the police and accuses Hector of raping her. Allison doesn’t back up her friend’s account of the incident when she is questioned by the police. This creates a rift between the two friends although it is only a temporary one.

The movie ends on an ambiguous note as Allison’s ex and his friends arm themselves with guns and seek out Hector and his friends.

Thoughts

There were a number of actors in this movie that I recognized from other movies and television including Shiri Appleby, Michael Biehn, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Laura San Giacomo, Raymond Cruz, and Channing Tatum. None of them got a lot of screen time or many lines.

There is a thread that isn't mentioned above in which Eric, one of Allison's classmates, interviews her about what her life is like. It is in the opening and closing moments of the movie and shows up here and there throughout the movie. I'm not sure what it adds to the movie.

Anne Hathaway appears topless in a couple scenes. Her character acts very interested in sex. This was a big change for Hathaway although she wasn't very deep into her film career. She made just 5 movies prior to Havoc.

I saw the R-rated version of Havoc. There is an unrated version which is several minutes longer. I have no idea what's in those extra minutes.

This movie kept my attention better than I thought it would. I imagined that I would want to turn it off after 10 minutes but there was enough here to keep me watching. It teased me more than it pleased me, in the end. I wasn't crazy about it. I kept hoping that there would be more to it than what what was on the surface, but there wasn't. I don't see myself watching it again.