I just finished watching the film and it had a profound effect on me, and it has me quite literally shaking.
I've had several friends over the past few years come up with, and battle mental illness, and it is completely frightening and leaves you feeling completely powerless and useless. People who you've known and loved for years can start acting totally and utterly irrational and disconnected from anything and everything and look right through you like you're not even there, and you can't talk to them because they're racing and you just can't keep up.
I see people calling her a free spirit etc etc., but I've known people who act very much like Mabel, and in 35 years, psychiatrics has changed a lot, as well as society's understanding of mental illness, so when the actors and director say, "but it's not mental illness" I may call them wrong. I was just listening to the commentary track on Days of Wine and Roses, and the director said both he and Jack Lemmon realised while they were on set, that they in fact were alcoholics. Alcoholism was another problem that people didn't always recognise. He just likes to drink, he's a free spirit.
It's very lonely for individuals with mental illnesses and for their friends and family. I saw a lot of myself in Nick as well, because it can be very frustrating and exhausting dealing with your friends when they're manic.
I can only imagine what it would be like to be married and have children with a woman who becomes mentally ill like that. I can't be there when my friend are at their worst, I'm not allowed because I'm not family. Unless they happen to have an episode when we're hanging out, and then I have to try and contact their families to let them know what's up. I can visit them in hospital, but that scene where Mabel's doctor is trying to get her to the hospital was incredibly stressful to me, because I know my friends parents have had nights like that.
Nick didn't seem abusive and neglectful to me, he seemed burnt out. He seemed like a man who has lost his partner. "Let's have a conversation," he would plead. He'd plead, because his wife, the mother of his children is gone -she's just not there anymore. Can you imagine that? It sucks, so much. Thankfully my friends have all come back from that. But 20 years on? Will they still be there? I don't know.
You watch the One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Fisher King, or A Beautiful Mind, and they are so so so far removed from reality, and make mental illness seem charming and quirky, and it's just a joke. I think the first time one of my friends forced his way through my door and started accusing me of conspiracies against him was when I was 20 and it was the most frightening thing in the world, because he'd been acting a little strange the last few months, but when he became manic, I had no idea anyone could act like that. He wasn't like Brad Pitt from 12 Monkeys at all. He was like Mabel. And that's the purpose of this movie. To reflect effing reality.
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spyretto
12 years ago
That was definitely the first movie I've seen that deal with mental illness in a realistic way, having spent time with mentally ill people I can attest to that.
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coolbrett
12 years ago
I agree with the OP. I couldn't see any purpose or point to this movie. It was like a collection of clips that some other kid in their family filmed with their home video camera. It was just a whole bunch of NOTHING! You know, sometimes I wonder if some directors just do whatever the hell they want, with the intention of confusing the audience and wasting their time, but claim it as just being arty and profound. I could just as well write anything about anything, and just make it drag on and on and have it end without answering any questions, as long as it has the pacing of an old lady's wheelchair race, there will be certain crowds who will love it.
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theavants
12 years ago
There are two purposes to this movie, the obvious surface story of the realistic physical portrayal of a women with mental illness but there's also the symbolic meaning of the situation of women during the time period (gender dynamics). The woman isn't crazy but is being driven that way by impossible requirements.
The husband says "be yourself" over and over and when she does he yells at her and slaps her, then she goes nuts. This happens over and over. The first scene makes you think it's all her when she goes to be bar and gets drunk and hooks up with the western guy but that's just to suck you in and fool you. Once the story gets going you start realizing that she's being driven crazy by her husband and society. When she asks her dad to metaphorically stand up for her at the end it makes it pretty clear why she's acting out. No one gives a *beep* about her. She must fit into each of their prescribed roles that others have created for her. No one will accept how she really is which is a little flighty, childlike and energetic but not crazy or dangerous. The scene with the neighbor bringing the children over to play demonstrates this and then the husband comes home and overreacts with physical violence. I found myself hating the husband by the end. He just kept saying "be yourself" and then when she did he punished her. It was sick.
People don't realize that at any given time society has certain beliefs and requirements for each gender and some of these are contradictory at best. Not everyone can adjust but in this case it's extreme. The husband likes his wife's free spirit but at the same time is always controlling it (sometimes with force) when it gets too much (for him). This is an impossible situation, a catch-22, and that would cause anyone to go nuts. Be yourself he says, but not too much. No one unconditionally accepted and loved her but her kids.
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Lovetvshows
8 years ago
"I agree with the OP. I couldn't see any purpose or point to this movie. It was like a collection of clips that some other kid in their family filmed with their home video camera. It was just a whole bunch of NOTHING! You know, sometimes I wonder if some directors just do whatever the hell they want, with the intention of confusing the audience and wasting their time, but claim it as just being arty and profound. I could just as well write anything about anything, and just make it drag on and on and have it end without answering any questions, as long as it has the pacing of an old lady's wheelchair race, there will be certain crowds who will love it."
I agree with your opinion. It is the emperor's new clothes. Some people want to feel like they are above it all because they actually understand this movie. They make other people feel stupid because they are unable or unwilling to understand this drivel.
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