Pursuit of Greatness

Dear Dolly Parton,

I have recently watched the Netflix original To The Bone. This movie follows the life of a girl named Ellen, who battles anorexia and her journey to health. This movie reminded me of you, Dolly, as I noticed similarities between you and a character named Dr. William Beckham. He runs an unconventional house for people suffering from eating disorders. Dr. Beckham turns his back on a normal life in the pursuit to achieve one for the patients.

When looking at all the inspirational work you do with your life, I couldn’t help but think about the influencing comparisons between this character and you. I’ve always been awestruck at your outstanding accomplishments, especially our fight to promote and improve literacy with your “Imagination Library”. The act of sending books to children has spread from Tennessee, Canada, the UK, and Australia. This compares to Dr. Beckham because through his selflessness of his work, he is able to impact so much more. One of the main points the movie acknowledges is how the disease of anorexia affects family, friends, and loved ones. It stresses the point that an illness is not a battle for just one person, but rather a unit. By changing one person's life, and leading them to a place of health and mental stability, Dr. Beckham affects much more than just one person and manages to change the lives of many. It is his sacrifice that allows his influence to make a difference, similar to yours. Through your work with the library, your pledge of 3 million to victims of wildfires, all of which includes, one thousand a month to each victim, and the $500,000 to the Fort Sanders Medical Center. While Dr. Beckham might not have affected as many lives, he understands as well as you that in order in order to make an impact and a difference, you need to sacrifice what you can to who you can.

Another similarity between you and Dr. Beckham is the integrity and originality in how you help and give back to others. Dr. Beckham is known for treating the patients in a home in an unorthodox yet effective matter. He achieves this by not stressing food, limiting family exposure, and a point system in which you can earn your freedom. His new method and perspective of the serious disorder is what leads the patient to a better self-sustaining life, and a 6-month long waiting list to get in on the program. You embody this mindset, as well by the way you execute your programs.

The movie has an ominous ending that can be left for interpretation. It ends with Ellen finally taking her health seriously and going back to work with Dr. Beckham. This ending doesn’t reveal if Ellen finally achieves health, or where any of the characters end up. I felt this was a lovely representation of life as the characters are going to keep working towards health. Dr. Beckham keeps working to help others and you keep working to inspire, without an ending in sight.

Character, Symbolism, and Struggle

CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of anorexia nervosa

This week I watched the Netflix original movie To the Bone. I was first drawn into this movie when looking through the Netflix originals list; when I saw the trailer.The trailer fascinated and captivated me, leading me to watch the movie. The movie follows a young woman, named Ellen, on her journey seeking treatment for anorexia nervosa. The movie shows her struggle with thoughts of inadequacy, isolation, along with many other struggles as she struggles with her illness. Overall, minus a few hiccups, I greatly enjoyed this movie. The three aspects that most grabbed my attention becoming the sources of my enjoyment were character portrayal, the symbolism used in almost every scene, and connections to my own life experiences.

I have always been a great supporter of the idea that characters are what makes a film great, for they are the basis of any narrative and prove to be one of the most intriguing parts of a film (at least to general audiences). To the Bone does a great job of creating complex characters with a depth rarely seen in most movies. The characters in this movie have complex motivations and struggles, beyond common two dimensional characters. Susan, Ellen’s stepmother, shows this well. As a character, Susan, portrays many stereotypes associated with the bright, bubbly mother stereotype. She is always talking, carries no filter in what she says or how she says it, and is a bit of a gossip. That being said, though, she breaks the mold usually assigned to this kind of character by being shown as a loving and caring mom to Ellen, doing anything she can to get Ellen the help she needs and filling a void left by her mother and her mother’s wife. So while being defined as a stereotypical mother in many aspects, the film breaks this mold by reaching a conclusion not commonly associated with the stereotype. This proves to be true for almost every character in the film from the main characters of Ellen, Lucas, and Ellen’s family to the other women Ellen lives with while seeking treatment. One of the ways these characters are portrayed are through the use of costuming.

To the Bone used a large amount of symbolism to further describe characters, emotions, and even Ellen’s state of health. Symbolism, as used in this movie, added a large amount of depth to the movie and individual scenes. The most prominent example of this can be seen with the depiction of Ellen. Throughout the movie the costuming and makeup used by Lily Collins in her portrayal of Ellen reflects the status of Ellen’s mental and physical health. In many scenes where Ellen creates strong relationships, she is dressed in bright clothes and has makeup that brings out her features making her look more attractive. Contrary though, in scenes where Ellen takes a step back, her clothes become drab and layered. The makeup used in these scenes adds dark circles to Ellen’s eyes and make Ellen’s face look more angular or thin. This detail also extends to other characters and even set design with particular locations being used for positive or negative events based on their design. These details as they are used, greatly increase the emotions and realistic tone the movie tries to convey. 

The emotion in To the Bone also really resonated with me. This stems from my own experiences of anorexia nervosa, with one of my best friends in middle school suffering from the illness. My friend lost an extreme amount of weight in just a couple of months. Following this she suffered from heart issues, that led her to be hospitalized for a few months as she gained weight and went through counseling. It was also revealed that her eating habits had aggravated a pre-existing disposition to celiac that my friend now has to spend her entire life with. This, of course, was a very difficult time for those around this friend, including her friends. This is part of why the film struck me so hard. The film portrays the struggle between the person who is suffering from the illness and those around them extremely well. From showing the impacts Ellen’s has had on her family, to showing how Ellen’s family has impacted her and her mental state. The film perfectly balances the emotion and reality that comes with this form of struggle. 

To the Bone, overall, is a magnificent piece of film. It creates meaningful characters with depth and complexity, shown with a variety a detail and emotion, I have not seen in most films. So while the film may have some flaws, like its ending, I found the film proves to be an enlightening endeavor into the complexity of illness and recovery.

To The Bone

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.