MovieChat Forums > Inside Out (1986) Discussion > Agoraphobic

Agoraphobic

posted 12 years ago by Camelot_2000
2 replies | jump to latest

I watched this movie once several years ago and noticed how well a depiction it gives of agoraphobia and the problems that can ignite because of it. It's never made clear why Jimmy Morgan decided to stay cooped up in the first place and run his business by phone, but the look at his mental illness is well covered.

I think this is the best movie yet - next to A Beautiful Mind - that gives a good look at the effects of mental illness.

The more I study it, the greater the puzzle becomes.
The Golden Voyage of Sinbad

[–] ourari 12 years ago

If the movie hadn't ended the way it did, I could have agreed with you. The ending implies that the cure to agoraphobia is simply not facilitating it by taking away the option of staying 'inside', by taking it away completely. With this it makes light of anxiety and anxiety disorders. It's fine to do so in a film, but it doesn't reflect the reality of someone burdened with chronic anxiety.

Anxiety, when left untreated, will only get worse and spread to other areas of life. It's not like depression, which in some cases will fade given time.

That said, I quite liked the film.

[–] WarpedRecord 12 years ago

I quite liked it as well, though the upbeat ending pretty much obliterated the previous 85 minutes. It's very rare to see the subject or agoraphobia addressed at all in films, much less so thoroughly.

Have any other fictional films covered the disorder more successfully? "Grey Gardens" seems to be the standard-bearer, but that's a documentary.