In fact, a handful of people walked out of this week's advance screening, and I can understand why. The movie's suburban setting and flat light form the perfect unflattering background for a disturbing story that doesn't flinch from accurately conveying the embarrassment of being a 13-year-old girl.

But for the movie industry, who seem able only to objectify or ignore women, this quiet story, a 2008 Sundance Film Festival selection, seems groundbreaking in the way it deals with the double shame of burgeoning womanhood. Jasira (Summer Bishil), the story's 13-year-old protagonist, gets caught clogging the toilet with, first, a bloody tampon, and then, a used condom.

She's a sexually curious adolescent whose needy mother (Maria Bello) sends her to live with her Lebanese-born NASA engineer father (Peter Macdissi) in Houston. He's troubled by his daughter's maturing body, and reacts mercurially as he tries to protect and restrict her.

Jasira's bullied by her classmates, who fling around the contraband of a menstrual pad as gleefully as they sling racial epithets such as Towelhead and Sand Nigger. After she becomes the babysitter for the boy next door, she becomes the sexual target of his father (Aaron Eckhart), a manipulative and racist reservist. In fact, she's abused or, almost as disheartening, ignored by most of the adults in her life, until a knowing pregnant neighbor, Melina (Toni Collette), offers respite and a copy of a maturity handbook.

Director and screenwriter Alan Ball, working from Alicia Erian's book, employs a similar deadpan affect and sardonic sensibility of his trademark TV series "Six Feet Under." That tone, while jarring, helps to turn up the volume of the embarrassment quota.

But it's Bishil's beautifully restrained performance - signified by the slight crease in her forehead that reveals emotional confusion - that makes this accurate portrayal of the experience of living through girlhood more than just the angst of another "Welcome to the Dollhouse." And in terms of transparent vulnerabilty, she's well-matched by the array of emotions that flicker across Collette's nurturing brow.

Overall, this is a girl's story that doesn't soften its gaze in viewing abusive men, while reaching emotional truths that last year's wise-cracking, wanna-be-popular "Juno" never attempts. By the time Jasira is pulled into assisting at Melina's birth, her wise comment - "Daddy doesn't like bodies" - doubles as the movie's most prescient cultural critique, as well.

Ellen Fagg is The Tribune's arts and entertainment editor. Contact her at ellenf@sltrib.com or 801-257-8621. Send comments to livingeditor@sltrib.com.

Towelhead

Where » Area theaters.

When » Opens today.

Rating » R for strong, disturbing sexual content and sexual abuse of a teen.

Running time » 124 minutes.

Bottom line » A suburban setting and flat light offer the perfect unflattering background for a disturbing story that doesn't flinch from accurately conveying the embarrassment of being a 13-year-old girl.