Today I did not see any film, in fact, I will do it after publishing this review, however, I am obliged to make a review to settle the commitment I have with my imaginary audience. So I decided to talk about a movie I saw a couple of days ago, The Poker House, which according to Wikipedia was retitled as Behind Closed Doors, but as we know, once something is called in a way, it's very difficult to change the name later. However, it is a film that stands out in some things, and that many people have not seen yet, so I decided to talk about it.

Year: 2008 Category: Drama. Director: Lori Petty. Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Selma Blair as Sarah, Chloë Grace Moretz, Bokeem Woodbine, David Alan Grier, Danielle Campbell, Sophi Bairley, Casey Tutton.

Agnes, Bee and Cammie are three underage sisters who live with their mother at the Poker House, used by neighborhood pimps and criminals to play poker and have sex. There, circumstances will force Agnes to take care of her sisters and to deal with the complex and dramatic situation.

Basically the film shows us the story of three sisters who live in misery, who are subjected to abuse, and the apathy of their irresponsible parents. They live with their mother, who is a prostitute and drug addict, in a house that is used as a brothel every night, and where an unimaginable amount of illegal acts are carried out. This, of course, is hard for the viewer to see, since he has to deal with the fact that three underage girls are influenced by that disgusting world. Especially considering that the story is based on a real life case.

The sisters try to simply live their lives dealing with this whole situation. Their father, a preacher, is in prison due to the abuses he exercised over his wife and daughters. So in the house, now lives a violent pimp that the mother brought to live with them.

The performances are excellent, especially that of Jennifer Lawrence, who at the time she shot this film did not have an insignificant part of her current fame. Chloe Moretz plays a very adorable character, and she does it very well despite her young age. On the other hand, Selma Blair, the mother, also does a very good job.

This is really a film that allows us to reflect, and think about everything that is wrong with the world, about the problems that many people have to face every day, abuses, beatings, aggression, violence, and all kinds of corruption, the worst, of course, is not only that, but also the contrast between all that evil and the fragile child innocence that is threatened by this environment so deeply harmful.

The end of the film is really the hopeful part, which makes you think that before all the evil in the world, there are those who decide to face it, continue, and become themselves an example for others who face the same situation and thus motivate them to to overcome it. But I will not tell you anything about it, because I do not want to do any spoilers here.

The film is a drama, it has good performances by actresses who are quite famous today, but who were totally unknown yesterday. I think it's worth seeing, and for that reason I recommend it.