Angel Baby

When I first saw this film, I felt torn apart by the complexity of love. In particular, the love that exists between the lead characters. It is hard enough in the "real world" for people to have a love without the interference of others.

In this film, the love story is exceptional. The two people have schizophrenia, an illness not of split personality, but of hallucinations that don't exist & voices that are heard but have no face.

So, under all this still lies the human need for love. And these two people find it. Pure & simplified. Until things start to go wrong again.

The challenges that faced the lead actors was to make believable both their love story & their illness. In particular, Jacqueline McKenzie is an amazing & articulate actor & remains true to her character's situation & beliefs throughout the film.

I decided to make a point of mentioning the film for it's true portrayal of a greatly misunderstood & yet common illness. For all the films about cancer, alcoholism & other illnesses, mental illnesses are still generally misunderstood & ignorantly ill-portrayed. Previous to "A Beautiful Mind", this is one of the films that portrays this illness both realistically beautifully, and for those reasons alone it can help people to understand more about an illness that most probably affects someone you know.

If you read the plot description of this film - two patients in a mental hospital fall in love, decide to move in together, one of them gets pregnant, and the two decide to go off medication for the baby's sake, with tragic results - you might think this is an American-type disease-of-the-week movie, but you'd be wrong. This is a tough and wrenching film which doesn't shy away from the tough questions. The ending is a puzzlement, because I'm not sure what it means, but other than that, this is powerful stuff. John Lynch and Jacqueline McKenzie deserve to be commended, as does writer-director Michael Rymer.

Stunning, heartfelt film by little-known director Rymer is most notable for brilliant performances by Lynch and McKenzie, the latter in her best role ever. Maltin called it (incredibly) `over-elaborate treatment of the subject matter' - it's quite the opposite, as mental illness is far too often swept under the carpet in today's society. Friels' character is expertly written, as a brother who cares for his troubled sibling but can't offer any solution, and who doesn't want his family being dragged into Harry's problems. The film's significance was reflected in its performance at the AFI Awards.

I was continuously moving towards my TV-set to help those two youths struggling to overcome their illness and trying to manage in a world who doesn't cope with their needs. Excellent acting from all parties. The film appealed to my rushing out to find someone to comfort. I'm an older grown-up, but I have never in my entire life been so moved by a movie. I loved it.

I myself have chronic paranoid schizophrenia. I take modern medications and I am functional, fit and physically healthy, and am a full time student on scholarship. That being said, I will say that this film is the BEST and most ACCURATE DEPICTION of my illness I have ever seen in film. A Beautiful Mind is hogwash, if you do your research, or have schizophrenia, or both, you would know that. This illness is not imaginary roommates to drink on the roof of the library with. WTF no, not for the vast majority of us.

No, this movie depicts the way the medications (which I take- I am on a very strikingly similar medication plan as the male protagonist, Harry) work, the way we see the world, the way we behave, the way people see us, the habits we have, the things we feel and think, it just nails it. I was astounded to see how well they made this movie actually be believable. However, I might add that most people with schizophrenia are not as slim, I am actually a rather muscular weightlifter and have been ever since I was 17, but don't expect most people with my illness to be slim to the extent of the main characters. They looked like models...well, that's not unheard of at all, yet it is a little away from the mean.

I only have a gripe about how they didn't address how most modern medications are likely to cause weight gain? What does that tell you about how accurate this movie is? By the way, I am a psychology major in my senior year, researching stigma of mental illness, so I have some say in whether this is accurate. lol That aside, this movie is a love story which does not hold back. It is some heavy stuff. Be prepared to cry.

If you are thinking of whether to spend an hour and a half watching this, don't think about it, just do it. This is perhaps my favorite movie. I have watched it multiple times, I think three or four over the years since I was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and it is just really damn good.

And if for some reason you are thinking of watching this as an educational experience about schizophrenia, lol, even if you are a professor, I don't care, you need to watch this, this is legit. The subtle behaviors, subtle mannerisms, ways they speak, things they think, things they do, everything is accurate. Just to not spoil the movie, the first minute shows Harry standing with his arms open in summer rain. This is accurate! We people with schizophrenia are in fact disinhibited to a degree. There, you may have not known that little factoid, now you do.

If you like romance movies, go ahead, but this is a very potent one. Be prepared. If you like dramas, this is one. If you just like good movies, this is one. I dunno, watch it.