Speak is a 2004 American coming-of-age teen drama film written and directed by Jessica Sharzer in her feature directorial debut, based on the 1999 novel of the same name by Laurie Halse Anderson. Starring Kristen Stewart, Michael Angarano, Robert John Burke, Eric Lively, Elizabeth Perkins, D. B. Sweeney, and Steve Zahn, the film follows Melinda Sordino (Stewart), a high school freshman who stops talking after senior student Andy Evans (Lively) rapes her at a party.

Plot

Fourteen-year-old Melinda Sordino begins her first year in high school and struggles on the first day. She has no friends, and appears uncomfortable when speaking to others. On the bus to school, she meets Heather, whom she somewhat befriends. Throughout the day, she is made fun of by several students, repeatedly called a "squealer". It's revealed that that Melinda called the police to a house party during the previous summer. However, her reason for doing so was because she was raped at the party, by popular senior student Andy Evans, but her trauma prevented her from reporting her assault over the telephone or to the police when they arrived.