An Audience of Chairs

While the topic of mental illness has been portrayed countless times in cinema I think this is one of the better films that I have seen about the illness. Some may take hope as the silver lining in the movie but I see it a little bit different. With a little bit of help and a lot of empathy it seems that we could be helping people in real and meaningful ways. I thoroughly enjoyed the film and got a bit teary-eyed in the last acts.

The movie is about a women who has a mental illness discovered late. Her husband blames her for a mistake she made leaving their girls alone.. Like so often happens the husband abandons his wife and takes the girls. He gets help to take care of them at his home but couldn't get his wife, the girls mother help while he was gone for months, working?

This is an insight into how women with mental illness are disguarded. It's their fault because they don't take their medication. I see that is a problem, but when she says ''you left me too long'', he turns and leaves her. This is about a selfish partner that turns away, not helping.

Her parents are a great help but not they are older. A story about a women pushed to her edge by an partner and when she snaps, "oh well she should have known, its all her fault."

Great insights into how some family run, how others help, how strangers help. The challenges with mental illness. While we see a unsympathetic husband, this character can be almost anyone who turns away, instead of offering compassion.

A subject not talked about enough in cinema or otherwise: parenting "alone" with mental illness. Maura, a mother of two, is struggling to keep it together as a mental disorder inherited by her mother slowly creeps into her life during the toughest time in marriage, career, and motherhood. We watch as Maura rollercoasters through mania and depression, torn between her love of playing music -- something she shared with her late mother -- and being a mother herself. The medications would "dull it all" and Maura's refusal to take it was her way of feeling "something" and we see it was unfortuntely to her detriment when she decides to do something dangerous and unforgiveable.

Being a mother who struggles with mental illness and doing this all alone I can relate to this film a lot. I found Maura's life to be more priviledged than mine though since she had the suppport of her loving father to help her get better, but I still felt deeply connected. I never once blamed anyone for what unfolded. A teetering marriage certainly could have been a result of Maura's mental disorder and I felt that everyone did their best to help her, even Maura herself. I felt that everything that happened had to happen in order for Maura to find the courage to get better. It was a good film.