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Movies like I Smile Back

Key Features:
Depression, Suburban life, Addiction, Marital problems, Family drama, Self-destruction, Mental health, Infidelity, Motherhood, Redemption, Character study
Tone:
serious, gritty, dramatic
Target Audience:
Adults, Drama enthusiasts, Viewers interested in mental health, Fans of character-driven stories
Emotional Arc:
Contentment → Despair → Confrontation

I Smile Back

2015-10-23
I Smile Back Poster - Find Similar Movies

Laney is an attractive, intelligent suburban wife and devoted mother of two adorable children. She has the perfect husband who plays basketball with the kids in the driveway, a pristine house, and a shiny SUV for carting the children to their next activity. However, just beneath the façade lie depression and disillusionment that send her careening into a secret world of reckless compulsion. Only very real danger will force her to face the painful root of her destructiveness and its crumbling effect on those she loves.

Genres
Drama
Cast
Sarah Silverman, Josh Charles, Thomas Sadoski, Skylar Gaertner, Chris Sarandon, Terry Kinney, Mia Barron, Shayne Coleman, Kristin Griffith, Nick Taylor
Crew
Paige Dylan, Adam Salky, Amy Koppelman
Rating
6.148(122 votes)
I Smile BackI Smile Back
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Smile
Smile(2022)
6.666

After witnessing a bizarre, traumatic incident involving a patient, Dr. Rose Cotter starts experiencing frightening occurrences that she can't explain.



Ben Is Back
6.6

19-year-old Ben Burns unexpectedly returns home to his family's suburban home on Christmas Eve morning. Ben's mother, Holly, is relieved and welcoming but wary of her son staying clean. Over a turbulent 24 hours, new truths are revealed, and a mother's undying love for her son is tested as she does everything in her power to keep him safe.



Krisha
Krisha(2016)
6.801

When Krisha returns to her estranged family for Thanksgiving dinner, past demons threaten to ruin the festivities.



Come Back to Me
5.7

Sarah and Josh are married suburbanites. After a car accident, Sarah suffers blackouts and ends up pregnant though Josh is sterile. As her life spirals she hides a camera in her home and unlocks a horrific secret with far-reaching consequences.



Return
Return(2011)
6.438

Back from a tour of duty, Kelli struggles to find her place in her family and the rust-belt town she no longer recognizes.



Young Adult
5.8

A divorced writer from the Midwest returns to her hometown to reconnect with an old flame, who's now married with a family.



Safe
Safe(1995)
6.949

Carol White, a Los Angeles housewife in the late 1980s, comes down with a debilitating illness with no clear diagnosis.



She-Devil
She-Devil(1989)
6

A cunning and resourceful housewife vows revenge on her husband when he begins an affair with a wealthy romance novelist.



Shrink
Shrink(2009)
6.186

Unable to cope with a recent personal tragedy, LA's top celebrity shrink turns into a pothead with no concern for his appearance and a creeping sense of his inability to help his patients.



I Want You Back
6.285

Peter and Emma thought they were on the precipice of life’s biggest moments – marriage, kids, and houses in the suburbs – until their respective partners dumped them. Horrified to learn that the loves of their lives have already moved on, Peter and Emma hatch a hilarious plan to win back their exes with unexpected results.



Happy, Happy
5.779

A perfect housewife, who just happens to be sex-starved, struggles to keep her emotions in check when an attractive family moves in next door.



Mr. Woodcock
5

Taken aback by his mother's wedding announcement, a young man returns home in an effort to stop her from marrying his old high school gym teacher, a man who made high school hell for generations of students.



Elizabethtown
6.2

Drew Baylor is fired after causing his shoe company to lose hundreds of millions of dollars. To make matters worse, he's also dumped by his girlfriend. On the verge of ending it all, Drew gets a new lease on life when he returns to his family's small Kentucky hometown after his father dies. Along the way, he meets a flight attendant with whom he falls in love.



Sherrybaby
6.075

After serving time in prison, former drug addict Sherry Swanson returns home to reclaim her young daughter from family members who have been raising the child. Sherry's family, especially her sister-in-law, doubt Sherry's ability to be a good mother, and Sherry finds her resolve to stay clean slowly weakening.



Better Living Through Chemistry

A straight-laced pharmacist's uneventful life spirals out of control when he starts an affair with a trophy wife customer who takes him on a joyride involving sex, drugs and possibly murder.



Postcards from the Edge

A substance-addicted actress tries to look on the bright side even as she's forced to move back in with her mother to avoid unemployment.



What They Had
6.479

A woman must fly back to her hometown when her Alzheimer's-stricken mother wanders into a blizzard. The return home forces her to confront her past.



Lovely & Amazing

An intimate family portrait of four hapless but resilient women and the bittersweet lessons they learn in keeping up with the hectic demands of their individual neuroses. Each of the women seeks redemption in her own haphazard way, but whatever salvation they find is illusory and short-lived.



Sweetie
Sweetie(1989)
6.005

The buttoned-down, superstitious Kay is attempting to lead a normal existence with her new boyfriend Louis. That’s until Sweetie, her rampaging, devil-may-care sister, returns home after an absence, exposing the rotten roots of their family and placing a strain on Kay and Louis’ relationship.



I'll Be Home for Christmas

Jackie Foster, a dynamic Assistant District Attorney and single mom, is looking forward to wrapping up her latest case and spending Christmas with Gracie, her adorable and precocious, eight-year old daughter. But when Jackie’s estranged dad, Jack , a gruff retired police officer, unexpectedly shows up at her door, they will be forced to confront old wounds.



Serial Mom
6.7

Beverly is the perfect happy homemaker, along with her doting husband and two children, but this nuclear family just might explode when her fascination with serial killers collides with her ever-so-proper code of ethics.



Home Sweet Hell
5.43

Don Champagne seems to have it all, but when his wife, Mona, learns of his affair with a pretty new salesgirl, she will stop at nothing to maintain their storybook life.



Post Grad
Post Grad(2009)
4.989

Ryden Malby has a master plan. Graduate college, get a great job, hang out with her best friend and find the perfect guy. But her plan spins hilariously out of control when she’s forced to move back home with her eccentric family.



Silver Linings Playbook

After losing his job and wife, and spending time in an institution, a former teacher winds up living with his parents. He wants to rebuild his life and reconcile with his wife, but his father would be happy if he shared his obsession with the Philadelphia Eagles. Things get complicated when he meets Tiffany Maxwell who offers to help him reconnect with his wife if he will do something very important for her in exchange.



The Hollars
6.297

Aspiring New York City artist John Hollar returns to his Middle America hometown on the eve of his mother’s brain surgery. Joined by his girlfriend, eight months pregnant with their first child, John is forced to navigate the crazy world he left behind.



Laggies
Laggies(2014)
6.1

Overeducated and underemployed, 28 year old Megan is in the throes of a quarterlife crisis. Squarely into adulthood with no career prospects, no particular motivation to think about her future and no one to relate to, Megan is comfortable lagging a few steps behind - while her friends check off milestones and celebrate their new grown-up status. When her high-school sweetheart proposes, Megan panics and- given an unexpected opportunity to escape for a week - hides out in the home of her new friend, 16-year old Annika and Annika's world-weary single dad Craig.



Otherhood
Otherhood(2019)
6.159

Feeling forgotten on Mother's Day, three best friends leave the suburbs and drive to New York City to surprise their adult sons.



After Ever Happy
6.792

As a shocking truth about a couple's families emerges, the two lovers discover they are not so different from each other. Tessa is no longer the sweet, simple, good girl she was when she met Hardin — any more than he is the cruel, moody boy she fell so hard for.



Welcome to Me
5.809

A year in the life of Alice Klieg, a woman with Borderline personality disorder who wins the Mega Millions lottery, quits her meds and buys her own talk show.



I'm Not Here
5.813

A man struggles with the tragic memories of his past to make sense of his present, but soon realizes that time isn't the enemy he thinks it is.



Max Dugan Returns
6.527

An English teacher and struggling single mother has her life disrupted when the father who abandoned her as a child comes back into her life.



The Roses
The Roses(2025)
6.801

Life seems easy for picture-perfect couple Ivy and Theo: successful careers, a loving marriage, great kids. But beneath the façade of their supposed ideal life, a storm is brewing – as Theo's career nosedives while Ivy's own ambitions take off, a tinderbox of fierce competition and hidden resentment ignites.



Home
Home(2021)
6.7

An ex-felon returns home from prison and must confront the demons of his past.



Home Again
6.112

Life for a single mom in Los Angeles takes an unexpected turn when she allows three young guys to move in with her.



Happiness
Happiness(1965)
7.412

A young husband and father, perfectly content with his life, falls in love with another woman.



Crazy, Stupid, Love.

Cal Weaver is living the American dream. He has a good job, a beautiful house, great children and a beautiful wife, named Emily. Cal's seemingly perfect life unravels, however, when he learns that Emily has been unfaithful and wants a divorce. Over 40 and suddenly single, Cal is adrift in the fickle world of dating. Enter, Jacob Palmer, a self-styled player who takes Cal under his wing and teaches him how to be a hit with the ladies.



One True Thing
6.5

A career woman reassesses her parents' lives after she is forced to care for her cancer-stricken mother.



Happiness
Happiness(1998)
7.4

The lives of several individuals intertwine as they go about their lives in their own unique ways, engaging in acts which society as a whole might find disturbing in a desperate search for human connection.



The Bounce Back
6.4

Father, author and relationship expert, Matthew Taylor is on a whirlwind book tour promoting his new best seller, The Bounce Back. He's got it all figured out until he meets the acerbic Kristin Peralta, a talk show circuit therapist who's convinced he's nothing but a charlatan. Matthew's life is turned upside down when he inadvertently falls for Kristin and has to face painful truth of his past relationship.



Smile 2
Smile 2(2024)
6.6

About to embark on a new world tour, global pop sensation Skye Riley begins experiencing increasingly terrifying and inexplicable events. Overwhelmed by the escalating horrors and the pressures of fame, Skye is forced to face her dark past to regain control of her life before it spirals out of control.



Matriarch
Matriarch(2022)
4.898

Afflicted with a mysterious disease after surviving an overdose, a woman returns to her childhood home to confront her personal demons but instead discovers a real one.



Home for the Holidays

After losing her job, making out with her soon-to-be former boss, and finding out that her daughter plans to spend Thanksgiving with her boyfriend, Claudia Larson faces spending the holiday with her unhinged family.



Broken
Broken(2012)
6.896

Three suburban English families' lives intertwine with tragic consequences.



Other People
6.347

David, a struggling comedy writer fresh off from breaking up with his boyfriend, moves from New York City to Sacramento to help his sick mother. Living with his conservative father and much-younger sisters for the first time in ten years, he feels like a stranger in his childhood home. As his mother’s health declines, David frantically tries to extract meaning from this horrible experience and convince everyone (including himself) that he's "doing okay.”



Mother
Mother(1996)
6.8

A neurotic, twice-divorced sci-fi writer moves back in with his mother to solve his personal problems.



Back Home
Back Home(2020)
5.8

The prodigal son of a family in turmoil returns home to his French rural home to reconnect with his family and make sense of their dysfunctions.



Cake
Cake(2014)
6.277

After having visions of a member of her support group who killed herself, a woman who also suffers with chronic pain seeks out the widower of the suicide.



Mom and Dad
5.402

In a suburban community, moms and dads, one after the other, mysteriously feel the irresistible impulse to attack and kill their own offspring.



Stepmom
Stepmom(1998)
7.2

Jackie is a divorced mother of two. Isabel is the career minded girlfriend of Jackie’s ex-husband Luke, forced into the role of unwelcome stepmother to their children. But when Jackie discovers she is ill, both women realise they must put aside their differences to find a common ground and celebrate life to the fullest, while they have the chance.



I'll Be Home for Christmas

Estranged from his father, college student Jake is lured home to New York for Christmas with the promise of receiving a classic Porsche as a gift. When the bullying football team dumps him in the desert in a Santa suit, Jake is left without identification or money to help him make the journey. Meanwhile, his girlfriend, Allie, does not know where he is, and accepts a cross-country ride from Jake's rival, Eddie.



Blue Valentine
7

Dean and Cindy live a quiet life in a modest neighborhood. They appear to have the world at their feet at the outset of the relationship. However, his lack of ambition and her retreat into self-absorption cause potentially irreversible cracks in their marriage.



Greener Grass
6.141

Suburban soccer moms find themselves constantly competing against each other in their personal lives as their kids settle their differences on the field.



The Safety of Objects
6.422

In a suburban landscape, the lives of several families interlace with loss, despair and personal crisis. Esther Gold has lost focus on all but caring for her comatose son, Paul, and neglects her daughter and husband. Lawyer Jim Train is devoted to his career, not his family. Helen Christianson wants to find a new spark in life, while Annette Jennings tries to rebuild hers.



Labor Day
Labor Day(2013)
7

Two strangers are drawn together under incredible circumstances. What starts as an unforeseen encounter over a long holiday weekend soon becomes a second chance love story.



In-Lawfully Yours
6.2

Following both the death of her father-in-law and a divorce, Jesse, a New Yorker, returns to a small town to live with her now widowed mother-in-law. Jesse struggles to fit in with the local townsfolk who don’t welcome her with open arms to say the least. Jesse becomes acquainted with the local pastor, her widowed brother-in-law, falling in love with him, much to the dismay of the community. Things get even more complicated when her ex-husband comes calling, suspiciously trying to win her back. Between her love life and entangled in-laws, Jesse is tested as she seeks the answer to where she truly belongs.



Garden State
7.082

Andrew returns to his hometown for the funeral of his mother, a journey that reconnects him with past friends. The trip coincides with his decision to stop taking his powerful antidepressants. A chance meeting with Sam - a girl also suffering from various maladies - opens up the possibility of rekindling emotional attachments, confronting his psychologist father, and perhaps beginning a new life.



A Christmas Wish
5.9

A broke single mother lands a job at a small town diner where the kindly patrons and staff help her family to have a happy holiday.



Time for Me to Come Home for Christmas

Famous musician Heath and small-town girl Cara are each traveling back to Oklahoma for the holidays when they get stranded in Chicago. Despite his fame, she has no idea who he is, but they hit it off—and she even ends up providing some inspiration for the Christmas song he's writing.



Friendship
6.5

Suburban dad Craig falls hard for his charismatic new neighbor Austin, and his attempts to make an adult male friend threatens to ruin both of their lives.



Back to Mom's
5.656

At 40, Stephanie loses her job and is forced to move back in with her mother. She is welcomed with open arms to the joys of overheated apartment, Francis Cabrel playing on loop, Scrabble games and precious motherly advice on how to behave at the table and live her life.



Women in Trouble
5.088

A serpentine day in the life of ten seemingly disparate women: a porn star, a flight attendant, a psychiatrist, a masseuse, a bartender, a pair of call girls, etc. All of them with one crucial thing in common. Trouble.



A Little Help
5.39

It's a movie for everyone whose life has been thrown off-course, out of whack, or simply not turned out the way they planned it. In other words, it's a movie for everyone, period. Set in suburban Long Island in the summer of 2002, with the psychic wounds of 9/11 still fresh, A Little Help is a story that takes a comic, searching and profoundly empathetic look at a few pivotal months in the life of dental hygienist Laura Pehlke (Jenna Fischer)-an ordinary woman whose life suddenly flies off the rails-and her heroic efforts to re-establish a sense of security and normalcy for herself and her son.



Smashed
Smashed(2012)
6.471

Kate and Charlie like to have a good time. Their marriage thrives on a shared fondness for music, laughter… and getting smashed. When Kate’s partying spirals into hard-core asocial behavior, compromising her job as an elementary schoolteacher, something’s got to give. But change isn’t exactly a cakewalk. Sobriety means she will have to confront the lies she’s been spinning at work, her troubling relationship with her mother, and the nature of her bond with Charlie.



I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore

When a depressed woman is burglarized, she finds a new sense of purpose by tracking down the thieves alongside her obnoxious neighbor. But they soon find themselves dangerously out of their depth against a pack of degenerate criminals.



I See You
I See You(2019)
6.99

When a 10-year-old boy goes missing, lead investigator Greg Harper struggles to balance the pressure of the investigation and troubles with his wife, Jackie. Facing a recent affair, great strain is put on the family that slowly gnaws away at Jackie's grip on reality. But after a malicious presence manifests itself in their home and puts their son, Connor, in mortal danger, the cold, hard truth about evil in the Harper household is finally uncovered.



The House
The House(2017)
5.622

When Scott and Kate Johansen’s daughter gets into the college of her dreams it’s cause for celebration. That is, until Scott and Kate learn that the scholarship they were counting on didn’t come through, and they’re now on the hook for tuition they can’t begin to afford. With the help of their friend and neighbor Frank also in need of a major payday they decide to open an illegal casino in his suburban house, risking everything together on a Vegas-style bacchanal where money flows, inhibitions are checked at the door, and all bets are off.



Irresistible
5.5

A wife and mother is consumed by the thought that her husband's co-worker is trying to win him away from her and their family.



Neighbors
Neighbors(1981)
5.638

One man's quiet suburban life takes a sickening lurch for the worse when a young couple move into the deserted house next door. From the word go it is obvious these are not the quiet professional types who *should* be living in such a nice street. As more and more unbelievable events unfold, our hero starts to question his own sanity... and those of his family.



Infinitely Polar Bear
6.631

A manic-depressive mess of a father tries to win back his wife by attempting to take full responsibility of their two young, spirited daughters, who don't make the overwhelming task any easier.



Crime + Punishment in Suburbia

At school, Roseanne is the object of fellow student Vincent's infatuation. By night, she deals with a troubled family life: her mother, Maggie, cheats on her drunken husband, Fred. When Maggie's adultery is revealed, Fred viciously takes his anger out on stepdaughter Roseanne. With the help of her boyfriend, Jimmy, Maggie plots her revenge, but Vincent might be the one to help her forge a new life in this contemporary fable loosely based on Fyodor Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment".



Goodrich
Goodrich(2024)
6.315

Andy Goodrich's life is upended when his wife enters a rehab program, leaving him on his own with their young kids. Goodrich leans on his daughter from his first marriage, Grace, as he ultimately evolves into the father Grace never had.



Little Children
7.062

The lives of two lovelorn spouses from separate marriages, a registered sex offender, and a disgraced ex-police officer intersect as they struggle to resist their vulnerabilities and temptations.



Tully
Tully(2018)
6.8

Marlo, a mother of three, including a newborn, is gifted a night nanny by her brother. Hesitant at first, she quickly forms a bond with the thoughtful, surprising, and sometimes challenging nanny named Tully.



Fierce People
6.1

A massage therapist looking to overcome her addictions and reconnect with her son, whose father is an anthropologist in South America studying the Yanomani people, moves in with a wealthy ex-client in New Jersey.



Demolition
6.8

An emotionally desperate investment banker finds hope through a woman he meets.



When You Finish Saving the World

Evelyn and her oblivious son Ziggy seek out replacements for each other. As Evelyn tries to parent an unassuming teenager at her shelter, Ziggy fumbles through his pursuit of a brilliant young woman at school.



Afternoon Delight
5.7

Rachel is a quick-witted and lovable stay-at-home mom, frustrated with the responsibilities of her son's preschool, a lacklustre sex life and a career that's gone kaput. One night, intent on spicing up their marriage, she visits an LA strip club with her husband, where she meets McKenna, a stripper she adopts as her live-in nanny.



Greenberg
Greenberg(2010)
5.869

Roger Greenberg, a failed musician now making a living as a carpenter in New York, returns to Los Angeles to house-sit for his brother. He's stranded there—since he doesn't drive—until his brother's assistant, Florence, comes to his rescue. She's as much a lost soul as he is, and the pair form a significant connection—giving Roger a much-needed reason to be happy.



Bitch
Bitch(2017)
5.3

A woman snaps and assumes the psyche of a vicious dog as her checked-out, philandering husband attempts to keep the family together.



Role Play
Role Play(2023)
5.946

Emma has a wonderful husband and two kids in the suburbs of New Jersey – she also has a secret life as an assassin for hire – a secret that her husband David discovers when the couple decide to spice up their marriage with a little role play.



One True Loves
6.3

Emma and Jesse are living the perfect life together, until Jesse disappears in a tragic helicopter crash on their first wedding anniversary. Four years later, Emma has found happiness again and is about to marry her best friend when Jesse resurfaces, turning her world upside down and leaving her torn between two great loves.



Life During Wartime

Friends, family, and lovers struggle to find love, forgiveness, and meaning in an almost war-torn world riddled with comedy and pathos.



Mommy
Mommy(2014)
8.2

A peculiar neighbor offers hope to a recent widow who is struggling to raise a teenager who is unpredictable and, sometimes, violent.



I Do, I Do, I Do
6.2

An architect heads to the altar with her fiancé, unsure of her marriage and their future. She relives her disastrous wedding day, put together by her fiance’s overbearing mother, over and over until, with the help of his brother, she begins to face her biggest fears and discover what she really wants in herself and in her life.



Brillantissime
4.9

After getting dumped on Christmas Eve, Angela must rebuild her life surrounded by her rebellious teenager, her tyrannical mother, her hysterical best friend, and a weird psychologist.



No Hard Feelings
6.699

On the brink of losing her childhood home, Maddie discovers an intriguing job listing: wealthy helicopter parents looking for someone to “date” their introverted 19-year-old son, Percy, before he leaves for college. To her surprise, Maddie soon discovers the awkward Percy is no sure thing.



Mumford
Mumford(1999)
6.49

When a would-be psychologist, curiously named Dr. Mumford, comes to the idyllic town of the same name and offers his talent for listening and a disarming frankness, the town's quirkiest citizens scramble for a seat on his couch. As he lightens hearts darkened by old secrets no one realizes he's hiding a whopper of his own, or that he's fallen head over heels for one of his patients!



Life of the Party
6.1

When her husband suddenly dumps her, longtime dedicated housewife Deanna turns regret into re-set by going back to college... landing in the same class and school as her daughter, who's not entirely sold on the idea. Plunging headlong into the campus experience, the increasingly outspoken Deanna – now Dee Rock – embraces freedom, fun, and frat boys on her own terms, finding her true self in a senior year no one ever expected.



You Can Count on Me
6.822

A single mother's life is thrown into turmoil after her struggling, rarely-seen younger brother returns to town.



A Christmas to Remember

A harsh TV personality, Jennifer, needs a break from her own life, so she hops into a car and drives to a small town mountain retreat. On her way there a blizzard veers off the road and she crashes. When she comes to she has complete amnesia and a friendly passerby takes her in. As time passes she still doesn’t remember who she is and the friendly passerby, a widower himself with three kids, assimilates her into his family. But as she slowly starts remembering who she is, she prefers the new life she’s built in the small town.



Baby Blues
6.01

On a secluded family farm, a mother suffers a psychotic break due to postpartum depression, forcing the eldest son to protect his sibling from the mother they have always known and loved.



Consenting Adults
5.4

Richard and Priscilla Parker are an ordinary suburban couple whose lives are invaded and rocked by their hedonistic, secretive new neighbors, Eddy and Kay Otis.



In the Land of Women
5.871

After a bad breakup with his girlfriend leaves him heartbroken, Carter Webb moves to Michigan to take care of his ailing grandmother. Once there, he gets mixed up in the lives of the mother and daughters who live across the street.



The Rebound
6.498

Upon discovering her husband's infidelity, Sandy leaves the suburbs and moves into the city. There, she befriends Aram, a guy whose wife only married him so she could get a green card. Sandy hires Aram to be her nanny, and it isn't long until Aram and Sandy find out they get along wonderfully and start to date. But is their relationship real or is it, in fact, just a rebound for both of them?



Blue-Eyed Butcher
5.731

A woman appeared to have a fairy-tale life, but six years into her marriage, the fairytale crumbles when her husband is found buried in the backyard of their home with numerous stab wounds.



Another Happy Day
5.538

A wedding at her parents' Annapolis estate hurls high-strung Lynn into the center of touchy family dynamics.



Helen
Helen(2009)
6.5

On the outside, Helen has it all – a loving family and a successful career – but when her suppressed mental illness resurfaces, the world crumbles around her. Crippled by depression, Helen finds solace through her friendship with Mathilda, a kindred spirit struggling with bipolar disorder.



Concussion
5.134

After a blow to the head, Abby decides she can't do it anymore. Her life just can't be only about the house, the kids and the wife. She needs more: she needs to be Eleanor.



Sweet Home Alabama
6.4

New York fashion designer, Melanie Carmichael suddenly finds herself engaged to the city's most eligible bachelor. But her past holds many secrets—including Jake, the redneck husband she married in high school, who refuses to divorce her. Bound and determined to end their contentious relationship once and for all, Melanie sneaks back home to Alabama to confront her past.

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