kirk herren

What mystified me about this movie was the thrashing it got by the critics. It was long, yes, and the parents were clueless how to help their son. And yes, it was maddening to see how badly they missed what was going on with him, and the dad was right that he was guilty of destroying the family. I fully agree that it was hard to watch, with a fairly predictable ending. But most of this criticism fired at this movie was about the unbelievable portrayal of a boy struggling with mental illness, and the reaction of the parents. While it certainly doesn’t represent mental illness and its impact on families as a whole, it gives a realistic picture of what it can be like, and how hard it can be to understand and cope with. It shows how infidelity and selfish ambition can destroy a family. I felt like the film wanted to show us how mental illness can overwhelm and incapacitate, and be so difficult to overcome. And it can be nearly impossible to understand or remedy for those who are not living it. Obviously, the dad was a terrible parent, and the mom wasn’t able to set aside her emotions and do what was logical when her son needed real, professional help. But mental illness can render you incapacitated and unable to communicate your pain and your needs to others, as well as lead to impulsive and terrible decisions. Getting help is hard, and knowing how to help can be even harder, especially when it impacts the whole family. Does everything in this film ring true, or do the actions of the parents make sense all the time? Absolutely not. But it makes you think about how mental illness can affect a person, and the impact it can have on a family. It also makes you think about how important it is to love your family and how critical it is to put your family’s needs far above your own. In short, this film does make you think about these things that cause so much pain and heartache, and although it was clumsy in its efforts to achieve that, it did what it was intended to do. But if you haven’t lived it as a victim of mental illness, or been the family member trying to help one, it’s easy to write a review and say that this film botched it all. Because for me it had a ring of truth and had some similarities to my own experience, if not everyone else’s.