Mental Illness in the Movies...

The mental illness stigma took a serious hit this year with the arrival of two movies:  Silver Linings Playbook & Mental. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll shake your head, and possibly even yell but one thing is certain - you'll have something new to talk about when it comes to MENTAL ILLNESS. 

You can follow the story of two lost souls looking for a silver lining as they wrestle with mental health issues. But whether the focus is on his (Bradley Cooper) bipolar disorder or her (Jennifer Lawrence) depression and post-traumatic stress issues... you get to see a brain disease from the inside-out and the outside-in.  Hold onto your seats, it's an emotional roller coaster ride.  If you've ever wonder what it feels like to have serious highs and lows (manic depression/bipolar disorder) or cognitive changes (schizophrenia) or a bit of both (schizoaffective disorder), this film takes you there with superb acting and story-telling.  Coping with an obsessive compulsive disorder or stressed out from caregiving for a relative with mental health issues is clearly revealed as a family affair.  

By the end of the movie you come to understand why it is so difficult for those with a mental illness to succeed with doing what AA requires in Step One of its 12-Step Program - COME TO ADMIT YOU HAVE A PROBLEM.  How do you do that with a "broken brain?"  How can you get to Step One when you have a disease that tells you there is nothing wrong with you?  While Silver Linings Playbook doesn't have many answers about treatment or successful recovery, it does provide insights and raise questions about the mental health system itself and the lack of a silver lining for too many.

Yet, it is noteworthy that a film about mental illness could garner Oscar nominations and an award while competing against such major films as Les Miserables.  It was 1975 when One Who Flew Over the Cuckoo Nest scored. So it's been awhile since another film on mental illness - Girl Interrupted (1999) got such Hollywood's attention. Angelina Jolie who played a diagnosed sociopath won an Oscar for best supporting actress; Winona Ryder played the author Susanna Kaysen whose 1993 memoir of the same name poignantly told about her 18-month stay in a Massachusetts' mental institution. 

It is also extraordinary that Silver Linings Playbook, a rather low-budget, sleeper of a film made history by becoming the first movie in 31 years to receive nominations in all acting categories.  The stellar cast which also includes Robert De Niro and Julia Stiles shines under the superb direction of someone who personally experiences mental illness in his family - Hollywood industry veteran David O. Russell and the excellent source material of best selling author Matthew Quick.

He certainly leaves his audience with many quotable reminders about life and mental illness:

“Most people lose the ability to see silver linings even though they are always there above us almost every day.” 

“It hurts to look at the clouds, but it also helps, like most things that cause pain.” 

“I don't want to stay in the bad place, where no one believes in silver linings or love or happy endings.” 

“Life is not a PG feel-good movie. Real life often ends badly. Literature tries to document this reality, while showing us it is still possible for us to endure nobly.” 

“I opened up to you and you judge me” 

“Haven't you ever noticed that life is like a series of movies?” 

― Matthew Quick, The Silver Linings Playbook

   WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE MENTAL?

Have you ever felt like you didn't belong?  According to one of the characters in the new Australian movie - MENTAL:  There's no such thing as normal; there's just different shades of mental.

You can't turn away for even a moment in this movie. Not when the five daughters of a political couple are all convinced that they are suffering from some kind of undiagnosed mental illness.

The movie which is now available on DVD is fun, loud, insightful, and often... just out-of-control. It's a black comedy brought to you by the director of Muriel's Wedding  - P. J. Hogan. The writer-director of Mental uses songs from the Sound of Music and a zany hitchhiker played by Toni Colletti to demonstrate what happens to the "fun" in dysfunctional. If you can handle more than one person going "mental" at a time, then you're likely to really get the uncanny way in which P. J. Hogan challenges stereotypes about mental illness. 

There's nudity and profanity, so families will want to screen Mental for the appropriate age level to see it.  The dialogue however shows there is plenty to explore and discuss: what is mental illness? And, Mental tears along showing just how much needs fixing in probably all of us - souls, spirits, personalities, thoughts, beliefs, and more.  

So it's kind of a mental thing itself when Shaz, the hitchhiker, shares her theory about the "normal" and not so normal in the clip below:   As the delusionals, the borderlines, compulsives, paranoid, schizoid make up Australia as we know it. We're nothing but a living experiment in madness under constant observation by the psychiatric community of the world.

We hope you will share your comments about either or both of the above movies in the space below.  Step Forward 2 day and speak out about the need for better mental health services and attitudes.