De l'amour à la folie

It seems like the title of this movie was chosen at the last minute by the guy in the business suit. "So it's about a coupla teenagers, let's say they're 'in love', and one of them has mental problems, let's call her crazy..." The film itself though, I think, resists cliches, especially the fact that the four letter word (love) was avoided, which has a tendency to suck dry any useful plot content that might be found in a movie, opting for some different ways of illustrating their relationship. The two main characters are well portrayed, and believable. I think Barrymore and O'Donnell hold together something that may not have great elements like soundtrack, plot originality etc, because despite the fact that Drew's eyebrows really annoyed me, they both did a good job.

The high-school student Matt Leland (Chris O'Donnell) lives with his twin brother and sister and his father in a house by the lake. When the teenager Casey Roberts (Drew Barrymore) moves to the house on the other side of the lake, Matt snoops into her room with his telescope. They meet each other and soon they fall in love with each other. One day, Matt is taking a test at school and Casey activates the fire alarm to stop the test. She is suspended and her father decides to check her into a psychiatric institution. However Matt breaks her out of the hospital. They travel in Matt's car and have lots of fun until the day Matt discovers that Casey has bipolar disorder with periods of depression and periods of elevated mood. When she tries to commit suicide, Matt realizes that she needs specialized help.

"Mad Love" is a road movie with a tale of madness and sort of teen version of "The Girl from Trieste". Matt Leland is a good student and son that changes his behavior when he falls in love with the maniac depressive Casey that has arrived from Chicago. When she is interned in an institution, he believes that her family is unfair with the girl. But when he realizes that her mental illness is serious and dangerous, he contacts her family and they find the solution for her treatment. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Amor Louco" ("Mad Love")

The bipolar stuff is dead on and Barrymore sells it. O'Donnell as the significant other dealing with it is also good but the movie opens slow and takes a while to hook you and lame half-assed attempts at emotional dialogue derail it toward the end, which is too bad because a good movie on bipolar deserves to be made but this is not quite it. Joan Allen is good as always but the man playing her husband has one note. Other cast members do what they can with small parts but in the end this is a two person story. And unfortunately it is about a man in over his head written by a writer in over hers.

Like many other reviewers, I feel this is a poor movie (screenplay), but Drew really captures the feeling of mental illness. I've known some people who are manic depressive (and a few schizophrenics) and I have to say that Drew must have some personal knowledge of severe depression to be able to pull off a performance like this. She really elevates the movie from a 2-bit teen romance and makes it worth watching. I'm not generally a fan (*hated* Donnie Darko) and I usually find her childish "damaged goods" image rather irritating even though it may be her real personality, but in this one she just embodies the part. 6/10.

Chris O'Donnell heats up the screen and Drew Barrymore is at her sensual best in this motion picture about two teens who take an adventure together against parental wishes. I admit the first time I saw this movie last summer I didn't like it at all. But when I gave it a second try, I actually found it was really good. Because the movie isn't packed with laughs or memorable quotes, I had missed a lot of what made the movie such a good one in it's subtle, yet charming way (the first time I saw it). When I watched it a second time, however, I payed a lot more attention to the movie itself and saw that it did have delight, great acting talent and other positive notes. As well as this, the directing was fine and there were some really good shots through the characters' road trip in the movie. This is one interesting picture. A must-see! Rating: Three out of Five stars.