WARNING I will be reviewing “To The Bone”. This movie is graphically based off a girl’s struggle with anorexia. I will be including heavy subjects in my review. Please keep that in mind before reading on.
Dear Nick,
Today I watched a movie, “To the Bone”. I have never been more disappointed in a movie before.
I’m not too sure if this movie would fit into any genre you seem to fancy, that being horror, surrealism, or documentary. This movie is a drama, and well, it sure was dramatic. And maybe a little too dramatic at that. In fact, it’s so incredibly dramaticized, that I am angry with it. I’m extremely angry with this movie. In this movie, we follow Ellen, or Eli, who is struggling with anorexia to the point where she could die. However, like any other drama starring a female, all she needed was a pretty boy to save her life. I know you don’t usually focus much on the “moral” of the story, so this probably wouldn’t affect you much. However, as you take a step back to look at the story as a whole, one of the main influences that pushes Eli to fight her eating disorder and start working to better herself is the love of a boy. At the end of the day, whatever motivation someone may have in order to fight a mental illness is probably a bigger benefit to them than anything else. However, as someone who’s dealt with mental illness before, both personally and from close friends, this isn’t a topic I would romanticize the way the creators did.
While the overall moral of the story isn’t the best, and while they romanticize mental illness as something beautiful-when it’s actually quite the opposite-the movie wasn’t entirely awful. One of my favorite characters was Dr. Beckham, played by Keanu Reeves. He seemed to be one of the most realistic characters. He uses harsh truth on his patients, and isn’t fooled by a majority of their bullshit. The creators used this as a tool, in order to put the viewers into a better sense of how the patients feel. While they live in their own heads, Dr. Beckham does his best to bring them back down to Earth. In a movie plastered with fantasy, he serves as a break from the unrealistic setting of the movie.
Overall, this movie tried and failed. The creators aimed it towards audiences that could relate to the topics presented, and yet I feel they did it in the worst way possible. They set unrealistic standards for how one should go about dealing with their mental illness, and don’t give sources as to who people could contact if they were feeling the same way as some of the characters shown in the movie. As this is Netflix’s second attempt at addressing mental illness in media form, I hope that either third time's the charm, or the third time simply doesn’t happen. It’s a difficult topic to truly justify and present in an accurate way, and too often, it goes glamorized. I hope someday there’ll be an accurate portrayal that won’t leave people thinking they want that sort of lifestyle.
I actually have to disagree with you on two of your points.
ReplyDeleteFirst, even though a romantic interest does come into play during the film, I do not think it is what caused her to change. Think back to when Luke asks her to stay at the home with him (in his greatest need), and yet, even helping someone she loves or considering his desires won’t derail her from destroying herself. Though, I can understand how it can be interpreted that it takes a guy to save herself. I mean, wasn’t her kissing him in the near-death experience scene the last happy moment that happened before she changed, right? Isn’t that obviously him saving her? Well, sorta, but I think it could be interpreted differently. If you take a look at the whole sequence, it really turns into a sort of Christmas Carol plotline--ghost of Past (her mother by the tree), ghost of present (Luke), and ghost of future (her own corpse). When I was watching the movie, I think her relationship with Luke is actually a representation of a happy life with someone who knows how to actually help her without being selfish (like her own family). In the end, after combining all three of her ghosts together, she comes to the conclusion that she wants to save herself.
This then leads me to my second counterargument. I think this film (while it has other flaws) is actually a good source for a more accurate take on coping with an eating disorder. If you look at the world of cinema, this topic isn’t widely covered, and I think it is because of the challenges that accompany it. How can you portray an eating disorder when there are so many factors involved? How do you portray it when it comes in so many varieties? For me, throwing complex characters all under one roof did the trick. Stereotypes were broken down for the audience, and while I was frustrated beyond reason for Ellen/Eli’s reaction to her condition, I think that was one of the most honest things this movie could portray. It was brutal. We as the audience were forced to feel the same frustrations her family felt within the movie.
I could probably go into more detail, but don’t want to bog down the post. I actually took a look at this film from a cognitive theory perspective for another class I am taking, so if you are interested in hearing more about how I came to some of these conclusions, just let me know! I would be ectastic to share!