Words on Bathroom Walls

Never mind cinematography. Never mind budget. Never mind acting. My teenage son with mental illness asked me to watch this, so I did. Afterwards I asked him .."is this you?" and he said yes.

So take this review any way you want. According to a 16 yo with mental illness, it is an accurate portrayal of his every day struggle to fit into this world.

This is a drama about a teenager diagnosed with schizophrenia and his efforts to hide it from a potential girlfriend. No, it is not as maudlin as that sounds, it is very well acted by Charlie Plummer with a good supporting cast including Andy Garcia, Taylor Russell, and Beth Grant. It is fairly realistic portrayal of mental illness and how difficult of a time care givers have dealing with the sufferer. They also show the character being given different drugs that either fail or have terrible side effects. The problem with mental illness is that is so difficult to get measurable results - that is, if your BP is 145/90 and the doctor gives you a pill and is now 120/80 the pill is working. It is not so clear with treating mental illness. And there is a quote (I'm paraphrasing) that really hit home for me: "if I had cancer, people would run to help me but if I have mental illness they would run away". I know from personal experience that this line is very true as a close personal friend suffering from mental illness said something eerily similar. Of course there are "Hollywood" touches and clichés but I recommend that you see it.

WHO made this???? I did NOT watch this to cry but guess what, flood of tears. I LOVED the entire cast & that's a rare one for me. I have snot dripping as I write this, I watch MOSTLY horror films, I HATE romantic films but you won me over, THANK YOU for this.

I never write ratings and not always trust them, because every person has different views and watches movies in different settings, but goddammit this movie was good. If you had been interested in anything related to mental illness or just appreciate good movies and dont mind a little bit of cheesiness this movie is for you.

I turned this on because I had nothing better to watch and I couldn't sleep. I was expecting a shallow drama with a romantic plot but OH GOD IT WAS BRILLIANT! Acting of the main character who is dealing with schizophrenia was really on point! I thought this will be a movie to easily go to sleep during watching it, but instead it was a movie on which I cried my eyes out. Definitely recommend!