Asking for It

Asking for It puts men and women in their own fringe camps, erasing the real and complex struggle for women to achieve equal rights, have their stories heard, and to see their rapists and abusers prosecuted fairly.

There are moments, here and there, where you can see what a pretty good cast saw in the possibilities of the material.

Asking For It is a pop-rock take on the revenge thriller that tries to take a stance, but fails to make a case for why it exists. Asking For It often feels like a mansplaining version of what a modern revenge thriller should be.

In execution (and there are precious few of those), Asking for It is too much like its cardboard heroines: edgy on the outside, empty within. It’s the “Charlie’s Angels” freeze-pose of rape-revenge movies.

Asking for It, the pitifully underwhelming feature debut of writer/director Eamon O’Rourke, is like a guest that shows up to the party late, empty-handed, and without the common courtesy to at least be a good conversationalist.

Subtle as a sledgehammer and shallow as a saucer, Asking for It is painted in such broad strokes that — with just a smidgen of humor — it would pass for satire.

Asking for It is made with sloppy overconfidence, a stunning bluff of both style and substance.