Smile Pretty is a 2009 drama distributed by Maverick Entertainment Group.  Some of its stars include Scout Taylor-Compton, Pete Chekvala, Alexander Knezevich, Shannon Collis, and Kevin McCorkle.  Mike Snyder is the producer.  The director is Harry Bromley Davenport.

The story follows a young teen named Nastalia, or Nasty.  Nasty is constantly abused by her foster father, both physically and sexually.  When she is “naughty”, she is locked in a closet.  She is not allowed to wear makeup and her foster father is the only one who can touch her.  One day, while walking her dog, Nasty meets a young man named Matt.  He seems like a nice guy and Nasty immediately takes a liking to him.  They meet again some time later and become friends, but Matt doesn’t seem to share her sexual attraction to him.  Eventually, she reveals to him what her foster father has been doing to her.  He tells her that he was molested as a child and, since then, has been attracted to much younger girls.  He knows it’s wrong which is why he resists Nasty’s advances.  Her foster father finds out about Matt and locks Nasty in the closet again.  After her foster father lets her out, Matt comes to their house to check on Nasty.  He knocks the foster father on the floor and she kicks him in the face until he falls unconscious.  Matt and Nasty, then, pack up her things and run away together.  Finally, Matt gives in to his temptations with Nasty and sleeps with her.  Meanwhile, her foster father wakes up and contacts her by phone.  She tells him that he can help by dying!

The fascinating thing about Nasty’s two molesters, Matt and her foster father, is the system of control they use over her.  Her foster father used fear and threats to keep her under his control.  He would often slap her and lock the poor girl in the closet as punishment for even looking at another boy.  Matt, however, was somewhat less violent.  He frequently tells Nasty that he loves her and that everything would be fine as long as she never told anybody about what he’s been doing with her.  But, late in the film, Matt does become violent towards Nasty when she threatens to call the cops on him.

After Nasty escapes her foster father, everything seems to be turning out all right for her.  She is on a potentially better path and with someone who appears to care for her.  After a few months together, Matt admits that he’s getting bored sleeping with just Nasty, so she brings in another girl, Samantha, so they can have some variety.  This is the point in the storyline where things start getting bad for Nasty and Matt.  She becomes jealous of Sam and Matt and has her thrown out of the apartment.  Later on, she catches him at Sam’s apartment and confronts him.  Nasty appears to be a sympathetic character who just can’t find the right path and stay on it.

To wrap, Smile Pretty is quite a sad story about a girl who just can’t seem to get her life together thanks to her troubled childhood.  If that’s what you’re looking for, then I highly recommend Smile Pretty.