MovieChat Forums > Invisible Child (1999) Discussion > OK, I think this is the deal on this 'mo...

OK, I think this is the deal on this 'movie'

posted 13 years ago by delia19461
3 replies | jump to latest

This is the only movie I have ever seen that has actually angered me. No explanation is given for her delusion, no explanation is given why this "loving husband" didn't get her the help she needed. No explanation is given as to why the nanny chickened out about reporting the situation, no explanation is give as to why the mother let "Maggie" die. They could have at least thrown a bone to the audience (who is waiting to see what's actually going on) and have the father explain they had a child die or something like that. Tom Hanks is Rita Wilson's husband and obviously one of the big shots in Hollywood. IMO, Rita made the film as a joke on the viewing public. In other words "let's see if a can get away with foisting a piece of crap" on the public. And, of course, the movie people went along with it, because of who the Hanks' are, probably holding their noses the whole time, while their careers went down for the third time. I can think of no other explanation. We've been had, friends.

[–] pigeonpoint 13 years ago

Amen!

[–] panson1 13 years ago

Really?....are you that stupid that you had to have it SPELLED OUT for you? They explained ( if you bothered to pay attention when the Dad was talking to the Nanny) that Maggie was invented in the mind of his wife when the two of them were growing apart in their marriage after the birth of their first daughter. An imaginary child was her second chance of "doing it right" in bringing her husband back from work and into the family fold of caring. As he stated, because of her obsession with an imaginary child, it did work; naturally he became more involved with his wife and family over her craziness. Her psychosis was such, that instead of institutionalizing her (probably indefinitely) the Husband and family decided to let it play out; WHICH IT DID!!! Mom was finally able to let Maggie go in her mind, when she realized he family's love and stability was ensured.....Most idiots think that committing someone to an "institution" is an automatic cure all, when in reality all they mostly do is sedate the patients, take the money and forget about them. People are so dumb, they have to have EVERYTHING spelled out for them in a movie. I think this was a clever movie highly under rated!!!

[–] jenni_doll_1 12 years ago

I definitely agree with you that institutionalization is not the answer for everything deemed a mental illness, but this woman needed professional help, at the very least, counseling and probably some type of medication as well. Marital difficulty and perceived spousal neglect does not cause a condition like that.
Sure, it could cause depression, substance abuse, an eating disorder, but it's not going to be enough to cause a psychotic delusion. I'd certainly say her marital difficulties was the trigger, but not the root cause. If she was really believing she had a child that didn't exist, her problems were deeper than simply being depressed and desperate to fix things between her and her husband. You just can't let a psychosis "play out", it doesn't work that way.
When a person is mentally ill, they're going to stay that way until they get the legitimate help they need.
She may have been able to "let go of Maggie" once she was able to feel the family's love and stability was again secure, but that doesn't mean everything's going to be kosher from now on. What's going to happen the next time she feels things getting bad between her and her husband or some other such difficulty happens in her life?
She's going to relapse into the same problem again and her family will be the ones to suffer. I think, even in spite of the ending, the husband should have seen he and his wife needed marital counseling, possibly counseling for the whole family, and she needed to see a behavioral specialist.
I understand why he didn't like the idea of his wife being in a mental hospital, but when you have a loved one who's mentally ill, you get them the help they need, because that's what's best for them and those around them, even if the prospects don't seem desirable.
He wasn't doing his wife or his kids any favors by playing this game and pretending it wasn't a real problem. Living in that type of environment was not emotionally healthy for those children. Maybe institutionalization wasn't the answer, but this woman needed psychiatric attention if anything was really going to change for her or her family.