The Character of Nadine
‘The Edge of Seventeen’ is directed by Kelly Fremon Craig and stars Hailee Steinfeld and Woody Harrelson. It stands at 95% on RottenTomatoes, a 77 Metascore, and a 7.4 audience score on IMDB.
‘The Edge of Seventeen’ is, undoubtedly, a fantastic movie. A great coming-of-age story, if not one of the best ever, that doesn’t take itself too seriously, has extremely strong moments, good entertainment value, and altogether creates a fantastic atmosphere in and around the motion picture.
Nadine, played by Hailee Steinfeld, is in the center of it all. ‘The Edge of Seventeen’ is wildly character driven; with which there is nothing wrong. Actually, kudos to that, but only if said character is good.
Which it is.
Nadine is, first and foremost, real.
Reading reviews for the movie, one stumbles upon one sentence more than any other:
This was so me when growing up.
As an Eastern-European man, I find it difficult, naturally, to fit in those shoes and completely understand the experience. And that is exactly the point: Nadine’s experience is not a universal one; one doesn’t have to have gone through exactly the same thing as her to understand her. Because everyone has faced the same universal difficulties growing up, in one shape or another; everyone has been outcast, felt out of place, felt alone.
So as an Eastern-European guy I haven’t, of course, had the same exact journey as Nadine. But I do understand her. Because the problems she faces, the difficulty of growing up that she has to overcome: that’s all universal and everyone has been through it. So everyone can connect.
And Nadine remains beautifully real. She is ordinary. The girl has in her qualities that everyone has had in them at some point in their lives. She faces difficulties that everyone has faced. And yet, it’s not poetic. It’s not fake. She is a real person. A thoroughly developed character, a real human being on screen. An ordinary human being that connect with the audience in a beautiful way.
Because of Hailee Steinfeld.
Of course, the good writing and directing contributes as well. But Hailee Steinfeld is the one that takes those words and makes them into something gruesomely real. She is the one that experiences the pain; she is actually brilliant in this. Hailee is a completely different person on screen and her portrayal becomes the perfect example of being instead of pretending. She takes Nadine of the page and embodies her perfectly; so much so that the audience becomes connected to the character, they care for her deeply, and they don’t want to separate from her at the end.
Hailee is spot-on in this. One can go on and on about why exactly, but the main point remains the same: she is Nadine. From beginning to end, flawlessly.
So, we’ve made clear now why Nadine works. But let’s go ahead and start answering the real question: who is Nadine?
She’s stuck.
We’ll go at analyzing Nadine through her relationships with other people, as that is heavily influential to her. But before that, let’s make clear the central theme around character: escapism.
Nadine is painfully and unfortunately stuck in a reality she doesn’t belong to. She doesn’t want to be there. Tragically, though, there is no way of escaping it as said reality is her life. She’s growing tired of everything and desperately wants to find a way out, but, sadly, can’t.
Nadine even turns to God at her worst, asking for help one last time; again though, her prayers aren’t answered. Her last beam of light, her last source of hope: it dissapears, too. And she gives up on that, too.
And maybe the best example of them all: the film literally starts with Nadine saying she’s going to kill herself. It then flashbacks, gives us all the context we need to understand as to why she’s saying that, and then loops back around. The whole point is: at that point in time, death is the only solution Nadine can think of.
Nadine needs to escape. But she can’t. There is literally no way.
Well, actually.
To quote another very favorite movie of mine:
The only way out… is through.
– The Only Living Boy in New York
Her relationship with the parents.
Nadine, in present day, feels no true happiness; at least from her perspective. The last time she did feel true happiness was four or so years ago: when her father was alive.
To Nadine, the relationship with her father (and Krista, but we’ll get to that) is the sweet release from the ugly world that doesn’t understand her. When she’s fighting with her mother and feeling alone? Her dad fixes it. When she’s feeling worthless and sad? Her dad takes her out for cheeseburgers. He is the adult in her life, the mentor, the one that guides her, the one that helps her understand and fight.
So, naturally, when Nadine’s father dies, she’s left only with pain; the natural pain from growing up she felt even before, the pain from him going, and the ugly truth that there is no one to help guide her through it.
Nadine’s mother, on the other hand, represents exactly the opposite: a ‘worthless’ adult, someone completely different from her who not only doesn’t understand her, but doesn’t want to. It’s not only the fact that the mother doesn’t support the daughter; it’s the pain that comes from knowing your mother doesn’t even try to be emphatic.
Her relationship with the brother and the best friend.
Darian, to Nadine, is everything that could have been. After all, he is from the same family. They share the same gene pool. So why is he the popular jock that everyone loves and Nadine is… Nadine?
To the girl, her brother is the ultimate form of the injustice. It’s the lead reason as to why she is mad at the world and thinks she’s been dealt a bad hand. Nadine is desperately jealous of her brother, although she pretends not to be. To her, he stands in the dream world; the perfect world, the world that she deserves: friends, parties, motherly approval, simply being happy.
Understandably, when Darian takes Nadine’s best friend from her, it’s the last straw. Not only has Krista, the only person who’s been some sort of support to Nadine her entire life, now left, but she left for her brother.
Krista is presumably the person who’s helped Nadine most throughout the years and the only person with whom Nadine can be her entire true self. Krista is the only thing that Nadine likes about her life. Without her, it’s truly unbearable.
And then Krista leaves. She chooses to leave. Krista leaves for Darian, the one person that Nadine is not only wildly jealous of, but that she also ultimately sees as the could-have-been version of herself. And then that version takes away the only thing that matters from her life. And that one thing chooses to go with him instead of Nadine. Naturally, this shakes up Nadine’s reality even more: makes her feel as if she’s not enough for the world and the people living in it; people will always leave for something better as there is always something better than her.
Nadine starts feeling differently only when she understands that her brother, too, doesn’t have it perfectly. This is yet another world shattered in her eyes; this time, though, it’s for her benefit. As soon as she knows her perfect brother is not, in fact, perfect, she feels much better. Because now she knows that, truly, they are not different. Darian is not a better version of Nadine; in fact, he’s tragically similar. He’s just better at hiding it.
Relationship with boys.
Ah, Nick.
Nick is the ultimate idea of happiness. Of course, not real happiness, not real acceptance or love, but just something that represents it in Nadine’s eyes because she desperately needs it. To us, as viewers, it’s fairly obvious that he is bad news. To Nadine, however, Nick is the handsome popular guy that will give her some sort of self-value or self-worth. At least so she thinks.
Of course, the Nick situation ends badly and Nadine is left crushed, yet again. It’s yet another world shattered, yet another idea destroyed, and the culmination of this series unfortunate events that she’s been going through.
Erwin is the actual person who could bring happiness into Nadine’s life. He’s actually the one who can give her self-value and self-worth. He’s the good guy who likes her for her.
But of course, Nadine doesn’t see that at first. She doesn’t think much of him because he cannot give her the superficial values (i.e. popularity) that she thinks she needs.
And yet, once Nadine realizes that her brother is also not perfect and also feels everything she feels, she understands that none of that matters. True happiness, true self-acceptance, and true love are the only things that, in the bigger picture, matter. So Nadine accepts everything that she’s already known deep down about Erwin and decides to take that step forward towards true happiness… with him.
Relationship with the teacher.
Mr. Bruner is, to Nadine, the ultimate reality check. He knows she’s tired of hearing generic consoling and pseudo-caring monologues, so he just goes ahead and tells her, well, the truth.
And the truth is a hard pill to swallow. Especially if you are seeing your whole world crumble apart.
And yet, Nadine goes back to Mr. Bruner. She feels a strange comfort around him. He doesn’t judge her, he doesn’t try and analyze her, he doesn’t say fake things to make her feels better. To her, he is a something real in an otherwise fake world. And she can be her true self around him: something that, after Krista leaving her life, she hasn’t had a chance to be.
Of course, he eventually helps her. Only when he sees that she actually needs it. And yet still, he doesn’t leave his true self behind: because Nadine needs to see that. Nadine needs to get a sense of reality, of the actual world she’s about to step into after high-school, and Mr. Bruner is exactly that to her. He’s also the only adult that actually offers her support since her father’s passing.
It’s a deeply poetic relationship, in fact. She’s her true self only around him and to her, he is the only true thing.
Nadine.
A real, ordinary character stuck in a world she can’t escape.
A character that has lost the one adult that does understand her and is now stuck with the one that doesn’t. Shit.
A character that is deeply jealous of her brother and his perfect world. Shit.
A character that looses her only sense of happiness to that exact brother. Shit.
A character that wants to love a boy, but looks the wrong way. Shit.
A character that escapes the fake world through being with the only real thing she can find; which is, ironically, her history teacher. Shit.
And yet, Nadine gets a happy ending. Maybe it’s because she’s finally happy about Erwin. Maybe it’s because her mother tries to understand her. Or maybe it’s because she finally gets to know her brother, truly.
Or probably it’s a combination of all of that. Because at the end of the movie, Nadine is finally ready. She finally takes that step forward – and goes over the edge.
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As always, thank you so much for reading,
Pouty Boy