Christopher Brown

This movie illustrates the struggles of daily life and the adverse effects of what can happen to individuals who feel like their current circumstances cannot get any better so they turn to other outlets in order to escape. Owen Wilson’s character does an incredible job of showing the audience a wild ride of life and what exactly drug addiction and mental illness can do to people. Although it became a little difficult to follow at times throughout the movie it was clear what the intent was from the director. That’s the whole point. That feeling of losing control of your reality when the only thing you need is that escape and chasing that bliss. You can see early on Sayek’s character Isabel drugs him ever so lightly and throughout the movie Wilson’s character progressively increases his dosage of the drugs she introduced him to as the prescribed pills he was taking was not enough to help him feel as if he had any control in his life. The drugs are the only thing that he feels can provide him that control and bring him to a reality that was ever only in his mind. The parallelisms and big picture ideologies of this film may be lost on most people but it hit home in so many ways as I have seen what people do to cope with their realities and the various outlets that are available in life to escape. Give this movie a chance and take the journey through a troubled individual’s life with mental illness that attempts to overcome life’s difficulties.