Dear Dictator(2017)

Submitted by Tornado Dragon

SHORT VERSION:
After Tatiana is arrested by the police and interrogated about the various illegal things that Anton has done on her computer that pertain to his plan to regain power in his homeland, she ultimately confesses that she has been hiding Anton Vincent in her house, having recently gotten the feeling that he wants to be turned in (which is true; Anton has accepted that his loyalists and associates have no desire to help him restore his rule based on them not responding to any of his attempts to contact them, plus he saw in a TV news report that his countrymen are happy that he is no longer in charge and are moving forward with a free and fair election). After the police check out Anton and get confirmation on his identity, they have him imprisoned, and he gets the charges against Tatiana dropped by telling the authorities that he took her and her mother, Darlene, hostage and made her do things that she would never do.

Tatiana visits Anton in prison some days later and admits that she turned him in, but he replies that he knows this, then tells her that he is proud of her because she has become a true rebel, and encourages her to use her newfound voice wisely. Anton is eventually extradited back to his home country, where he gets charged with crimes against humanity and is currently awaiting a military tribunal. However, he sends Tatiana and Darlene new letters to each of them, and after they read their letters together, the two embrace.

In addition to the above, Tatiana enters into a relationship with her friend and long-time crush, Denny, and Darlene simultaneously quits her job as a dental assistant and ends her affair with her married boss, having finally accepted that he is not her ticket to a better life. She also tells one of her boss’ female patients about his foot fetish, likely so she will spread this information about him and ruin his reputation and marriage.

LONG VERSION:
Under Anton’s (Michael Caine) tutelage, Tatiana (Odeya Rush) conducts her own personal social revolution at her high school against the “Slushies”, the popular clique led by Sarvia (Fish Myrr) who bully her. She first frames Sarvia by putting graffiti with her name on it around the school, causing her to get expelled, and then easily deposes the rest of the clique from the top of the pecking order, leaving her free to assume “leadership” over the masses. However, despite Anton encouraging her to do this to expand her power base, she has reservations about getting back at her friend Denny (Jackson Beard) for getting intimate with Sarvia since she has long had a crush on him. When she goes to school the next day, she discovers that the video Denny sent her of him and Sarvia having MDMA-fueled sex (which Sarvia made him record and he had sent to Tatiana to purge his soul of evil since he strives to be a devout Christian to please his extremely religious father) has been forwarded to all of the students under her name, and she realizes that Anton did this. She finds Denny while he is sitting in his truck in the parking lot and tells him that she didn’t post the video, but he replies with great disappointment that his life is about to go down the toilet, thanks to her, after which he drives away. She heads home and rebukes Anton for cyberbullying Denny in her name, but he has no remorse.

That night, a mysterious individual, seen a few times during the film, comes up to Tatiana’s house and starts taking pictures of her and Darlene (Katie Holmes) from outside their bedroom windows. However, Anton spots the person and seizes them, and Tatiana hears the sound the person made when being grabbed. After she tells Darlene about it, they hear more noises emanating from the garage, so they go in and find that Anton has bound and gagged the mysterious person and is now waterboarding them with milk to procure information, thinking that the person is a government agent who is spying on him. Tatiana and Darlene stop him before discovering that the individual is Tatiana’s social studies teacher, Mr. Spines (Jason Biggs). He explains that he was concerned about Tatiana (after she first told him that she wrote to Anton Vincent) and thought that there was trouble at home, especially after Darlene got hostile with him when he tried to discuss his concerns with her, so he called Child Protective Services, and they told him to get evidence and prepare a report for them. He tells them that he fully intends to drop the whole issue now, but Darlene becomes furious with him for taking such actions against her and wildly splashes his head with the milk until he frees himself and runs away. Tatiana curses her mother and Anton for their actions and heads back into the house.

Later on, Tatiana speaks with Anton alone and calls him a fraud, and Anton replies that a fraud is someone who pretends to be something that they are not, and he is what he is; a man with a past and a man with a future. She sarcastically tells him that he has a great future ahead of him, torturing innocent people in suburbia, and he replies that it is better that a man loses his head than a country loses a war. She asks him what war that could possibly be and says that the war is over, to which he replies that the war is never over. Tatiana then tells him that there is no one left to fight, and sarcastically asks if he is going to blow up her school next. He answers that he is a rebel and will keep going until someone stops him, and he then asks Tatiana if she thinks she will be that someone. He then explains that he and his daughter Chloe are estranged; she was engaged to a man whom he suspected of treason, so he ended up having him executed and put her in prison for three years. He tells Tatiana that you must have the courage to do what you believe in, even if it hurts the ones that you love, and he then asks her if she has that kind of courage. He interprets this as a negative acknowledgment when she doesn’t answer and tells her that she is no rebel but a punk.

The next morning, Anton watches a TV news report about his homeland, where he finds out that the people are holding a free and fair election, and they are overjoyed at the fact that their next leader will not be him. This news, coupled with the knowledge of how his loyalist forces and his other supposed allies have not responded to any of his attempts to contact them, spurs him to leave the house to do some shopping and clear his head. Tatiana goes to school and finds that she has become feared by her fellow students over everything that she has done or has been done in her name (a consequence of her rise to power), and then she finds out that Denny has become suicidal over both the video and his belief that he has disobeyed his father when she spots him on the roof of the school and threatening to jump. In the end, he jumps to the ground, but the height he fell from is not sufficient enough to kill him, so he just sustains multiple injuries and gets hospitalized. Darlene picks up Tatiana sometime later, and as they drive back home, Darlene tells Tatiana that Anton thinks that she could become a real dentist. Tatiana replies that Anton is a liar, and this got reinforced after she did some research on him and found out that he is not the great revolutionary that he claims to be: He inherited the dictatorship of his country from his father, and he only fought one battle in the mountains from a helicopter, so his rebel attitude rings hollow. They then notice a police cruiser coming up behind them and following them all the way to their house, then stopping for a few moments before driving on, and Tatiana tells her mother that she suspects that the authorities have been tracking Anton’s emails to his associates that he has been sending over her computer.

That night, a bunch of police officers suddenly show up outside the house and surround it. Believing that they are here to get Anton, Darlene tells him that they must hide him, but Anton replies that he is not afraid to face the police, because they will just extradite him and his people will welcome him home. Anton exits the house with his hands up, but the police soon announce that they are actually here for Tatiana. Confused, Tatiana steps outside, and she is promptly arrested and taken to the police station, with Darlene accompanying her. As the cops search the house while Anton sits on the living room couch in silence, Tatiana and Darlene are questioned by three detectives in an interrogation room, and it turns out that Tatiana is in trouble for everything Anton has done using her computer – not only for posting the video of Denny and Sarvia and emailing his various contacts, but also for conducting online searches for various heavy-duty weapons as well as buying them from certain websites, and this all looks particularly bad for her because of the letters she wrote to Anton before all of that as well as them seeing her illustrated plans for her social revolution. They accuse her of being in possession of some serious weaponry that she will use to attack her school with, but she replies that she has nothing of the sort, and they say that they know that she is hiding something, if not weapons. The detectives soon learn from one of the cops searching the house that the place is clean, so they have no choice but to let Tatiana go, though they warn her that they will be watching her. However, just before Tatiana can walk out the door, she stops herself and confesses that she has been hiding a man. Darlene tries to stop her from revealing anything further by telling the detectives that she is just under duress and doesn’t know what she is saying, but Tatiana tells them straight up that Anton Vincent has been living in their house. She then gets into a heated argument with Darlene about it, telling her that Anton clearly wants them to turn him in, and she then accuses her mother of not being able to see what he is capable of because she is in love with him, prompting her to slap her. One of the detectives then calls one of the cops on the scene and tells them to check out the old man.

Tatiana is next seen visiting Denny at a rehab center, and she tells him that the cops put Anton in prison after they got confirmation on his identity. She also says that Anton told the authorities that he was holding her and Darlene hostage and forcing her to do things that she would never do, so all of the charges against her were dropped. Denny apologizes to her for getting involved with Sarvia, having finally realized that she is not the awesome person that he thought she was, and he then asks Tatiana if he ruined whatever chances there were for the two of them to become a couple. She replies that he hasn’t, but they should just take it slow and see where it all goes. Some days later, Tatiana visits Anton in prison, and he tells her that, despite the fact that he is at the end of his road, he is still standing by his cause. He also informs her that he recently wrote to Chloe, and he only did it because of her. Tatiana confesses to him that she was the one who turned him in, but Anton replies that he knows this, and he is proud of her because she has become a true rebel. After telling her that she has found her voice and that she must use it wisely, he is taken back to his cell. As Darlene drives Tatiana back home, Tatiana asks her if she did the right thing by turning Anton in, and Darlene replies that, if it was hard for her to do, then it probably was. Darlene then decides to make a stop at the dental office she works at in order to see her boss Charles (Seth Green) (who has been cheating on his wife with her), and she enters his treatment room while he is with a female patient and throws him her scrub top before telling him that she is quitting, having finally accepted that he is not her ticket to a better life. She then decides to stick it to him by informing his patient about his foot fetish (undoubtedly so she will spread this information about him and ruin Charles’ reputation as well as his marriage).

Tatiana is later shown at home watching a TV news report announcing that Anton has been extradited to his home country, where he has been charged with crimes against humanity and will be facing a military tribunal, and he was captured after his “mother-daughter hostages” managed to escape him. We also find out that, because Anton told the authorities that he was making Tatiana do things that she would never do, her framing of Sarvia came to be considered as one of those things, which resulted in Sarvia’s expulsion getting overturned and the Slushies being reunited. Darlene then has Tatiana sit down to dinner with her, where she has made Mole Maria in honor of Anton since he made it for them during his stay. After eating a little bit of it, Tatiana pays her mother a compliment on it because she cooked something that actually tasted okay. Darlene then hands her a new letter from Anton, and she finds that it contains a letter for Darlene as well. After reading their letters, the two embrace.