What was her illness?

I'm pretty sure the mother has cancer - which is why the father goes to London - to get more money for her medications.

Just watching the mannerisms the son's actor portrays, I would guess that it's supposed to represent high functioning Autism or Aspergers, as well as a pretty serious case of Borderline Personality Disorder. He may be Schizophrenic, but the character's actions seem to be written more as BPD and it's very very rare for someone to have BPD and Schizophrenia, although not impossible.


Being happy is like peeing yourself, everyone sees it - but only you feel the warmth!

The son, to me, seemed to be Paranoid Schizophrenic (i.e. hallucinations, delusions, self-destructive and irrational behavior) with some autistic tendencies (hand-flapping, 'stemming,' social awkwardness) and maybe some MR (Mental Retardation) on the side. I don't think he has BPD because from what I understand, people who are Borderline are very manipulative, and James was only frenetic and irrational. On his site, Simon Rumley describes James as 'Mentally Challenged,' but I think that is only scraping the surface of his pathological behavior.

As for the mum, I guess she has cancer? The story was inspired by Simon Rumley's mother, who had cancer, and one deleted scene shows James have a frightening hallucination where his mother pulls off her hair, which he must have associated with cancer (although the mother had all her hair.) Also, Franki's mother in Rumley's next film, "Red, White, & Blue," had a mother who clearly had cancer.