Sexting in Suburbia

Sexting in Suburbia
Directed by John Stimpson
Written by John Stimpson
Marcy Holland
Distributed by Lifetime
Release dates
 January 14, 2012
Country United States
Language English

Sexting in Suburbia (sometimes called Shattered Silence) is a 2012 Lifetime movie starring Liz Vassey, Jenn Proske, Ryan Kelley and Kelli Goss.

Plot

The film opens as school pariah, Dina Van Cleve (Jenn Proske) walks down the hallway of her school. When she opens her locker, a pile of condoms that were put inside as a prank comes falling out. Later, Dina is shown alone in her room recording a video diary. When her mother, Rachel (Liz Vassey) returns home, she finds Dina's body hanging in her room. The film then flashes back six weeks, showing Dina as a popular and talented field hockey player who was voted Homecoming Queen at her school. However, the night ends on a bad note when she changes her mind about giving up her virginity to her boyfriend, Mark (Ryan Kelley) who leaves angry. Dina returns home while Mark goes to an after-party and cheats on Dina with her rival, Skylar Reid (Kelli Goss). Dina takes a few pictures of herself naked and sends them to Mark the next morning. But when she arrives at school, she is surprised by applause from the student body and soon realizes that her picture has been seen around campus. Distraught by a wall of cruel comments written about her in the girls bathroom already, Dina demands that Mark tell her who he sent the picture to, but he insists that he didn't send it to anyone.

Back in the present, Rachel is in Dina's room when someone calls Dina's phone. It turns out to be one of her friends, who was studying abroad. She tells Rachel that the only way she'll find anything about Dina is to look online. Rachel discovers Dina's video-diary and tries to question Claire, who won't tell her anything. After trying to go to the school administration to question the social networking profiles that were cyber-bullying Dina, Rachel writes an article damning the school administration for their lack of help. The article catches the attention of many news networks, but damages Rachel's cause. No one at Dina's school will talk to her and she loses some of her real estate work because no one will buy a house from her.

Rachel becomes the target of a revenge campaign. Someone stuffs her mailbox full of letters that say "Leave It Alone" with cut-out letters and a picture of a noose. Dina's grave is vandalized with someone spray painting "Dina is a slut" and leaving her torn letter and condoms. After breaking down and begging Mark to tell her what happened, which he doesn't do, Rachel heads home. Upon her return, someone throws a brick through the front window, breaking the glass. Mark is arrested for distributing child pornography. One of the school administrators visits Rachel's home and tells her the news, but Rachel remains unapologetic because things are still being hidden from her. Driving, Rachel spots Dina's best friend, Claire Stevens (Rachel Delante) and asks her what she knows. Claire reveals that she saw Skylar and Mark hooking up at the after-party and witnessed Dina begging Mark to help her stop the circulation of the picture; then Skylar walked up and insulted her. Dina then left, and Skylar revealed that she sent the picture from Mark's phone to one other person.

Mark visits Rachel and they talk. He tells her that he wasn't the one who sent the picture and Rachel tells him that she believes him. Mark tells Rachel that Dina started skipping hockey. In a flashback, Claire asks Skylar if they can lay off Dina. Skylar says that someone should tell their coach so that Dina can get kicked off the team. She manipulates Claire into telling the coach, since she can't because she lost the position of team captain to Dina and it would look like "sour grapes".

Rachel thanks Mark for his help. She visits her long-time friend and Skylar's mom, Patricia (Judith Hoag) and tells her that she knows Skylar was the one who sent the picture out. Refusing to believe her, Patricia asks Skylar in front of Rachel if she sent the picture and Skylar says no. Rachel asks Patricia if she can see Skylar's phone, but Patricia refuses. After breaking down, Patricia offers to make Rachel some tea while Rachel fixes herself up in the bathroom. While in the bathroom, she knocks over a pile of magazines and sees the original cut-out words from the letters in her mailbox.

After Rachel leaves without revealing what she has found, Skylar tells her mom that she only sent the picture to one other person to prove Dina wasn't the saint she acted like. Rachel decides to drop the charges against Mark, but wants to change the direction of the investigation to focus on Skylar. However, the police reveal that Claire was the one person that Skylar sent the picture to, and she sent the picture to forty other people.

Rachel goes home and hears one of Dina's video diaries playing. In Dina's bedroom she finds Claire, who runs out of the room. Rachel watches a video where Dina reveals that she got kicked off the field hockey team because of the picture and lost her scholarship (which Skylar then gained) because her coach was forced to report it to her college of choice. Clearing out her locker, Skylar and Dina get into a fight where Skylar tells her that Claire was the one who told the coach about the picture. Dina viciously tears into Claire, who walks into the room. It turns out that it's Dina's last video diary before she committed suicide. Breaking down, Claire reveals that she just wanted Skylar to like her and she didn't want the field hockey team to be disqualified if Dina's picture was ever discovered.

Pleading her innocence, Claire insists that she didn't send the picture. She accidentally left her phone in the limo on Homecoming, and it was returned to Skylar's house. Rachel then realizes that Patricia sent the picture on Claire's phone. Angrily, Skylar confronts her mother after discovering a copy of the picture on her mom's phone. Slowly she realizes that it was Patricia who trashed Dina's grave-site and threw the brick through Rachel's window. Patricia pleads with Skylar to understand that she did everything for her because she never would've gotten the field hockey scholarship to Price otherwise. Disgusted at her mother's actions and refusal to show any remorse for Dina's death or take any responsibility for what she had done, Skylar takes the family car and runs away, but crashes the car into a tree while angrily texting Patricia "I will never forgive you" after she sent her a message begging for forgiveness. Patricia is arrested for the distribution of child pornography.

Rachel visits Skylar in the hospital, where it is revealed that she may have lost the use of her legs. Patricia asks if Rachel has come to gloat, but Rachel apologizes that Patricia is now going through what she went through, that she found her daughter that much a threat and that their friendship wasn't real. She promises to pray for Skylar, but also promises to see Patricia in court. Rachel then leaves the room as Patricia breaks down in tears.

Rachel is shown recording a video diary of her own, wondering if her quest to understand what Dina went through has made any difference. Claire visits her house and asks Rachel to come with her to the school because she has a surprise for her. Rachel enters the auditorium where Claire makes a speech about bullying and says that Dina was bullied to death and that her suicide is the fault of everyone who participated in the bullying. The students then give up their cell phones for the rest of the semester. The movie ends with Rachel watching one of Dina's earlier video diaries with Claire.

Cast

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