Welcome to Me

Fools and their money are soon parted from one another. Nowhere does this saying hold true more than with lottery winners. Alice Klieg, diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, emerges from a solitary and sedentary life as the new winner of $86 million from the state lottery. She begins to buy airtime at a local television station that is desperate for cash. Alice's new talk show "Welcome to Me" is a perfect reflection of her impulsive, socially awkward, indecisive, random, obsessive, moody and sensitive self. It features some of her favorite recopies (meatloaf cake), traumatic events from her past (the "carousel of life"), and – of course – swans (she loves swans). Her insistence upon absolute control and predilection to get out of control, make for some interesting and eccentric shows that are alternately extremely boring and explosive. The dry and dark humor of the film fits the acting abilities of Kristen Wiig perfectly. The film is funny as well as raw. I wish there was more depth to the plot, however, for it relies too much on the wacky shows. Seen at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.

Welcome to Me is a distinctly odd movie about a woman with a boderline personality disorder diagnosis and millions of dollars in lottery winnings who decides to have a vanity TV show all about her. It's an interesting idea, and it kept my attention, but I feel it wasn't quite the movie it might have been.

First off I'd like to talk about borderlines, because I've known a couple. Googling around I've found a few articles describing this movie as either a good or bad portrayal of BPD. Since BPD simply means you exhibit a large number of traits from a list (impulsivity, self-harm, etc.), Alice is acceptable as a borderline. And since being borderline can exist with other conditions, like depression or narcissism, you can't really complain about less typical borderline behavior.

That being said, Alice doesn't seem like borderlines I've known, and lacks some commonly known BPD qualities. For example, borderlines are often very good at feigning normalcy. I once saw a BPD friend, ranting and raving after sneaking out of a psyche ward and trying to kill herself, instantly become calm and rational when the cops came to check on her. Many psychiatrists don't like working with borderlines because they can feel tricked when that patient convinces their doctor that they're fine now right before a suicide attempt.

Alice, on the other hand, is just purely odd. And her oddness seems to come entirely from her mental illness. It is as though Kristen Wiig was so concerned with getting the symptoms right that she never thought about who Alice would be without her mental illness. But in truth, people with mental illnesses have traits that have nothing to do with being mentally ill (although some psychiatrists do try to fit everything about their patients into their diagnosis).

Because of this, Alice is an interesting character but not a really compelling one.

Meanwhile, the intriguing premise never quite gels. Is the movie a satire of celebrity and our fascination with trashy talk shows? Is it an attempt to portray mental illness? Is it an attempt to get laughs out of mental illness?

I never really felt this movie had a vision, or a point of view. Like the main character, the story feels like it's a bunch of ideas stuck together rather than a cohesive drama.

While the movie feels a little undercooked, I did enjoy it. Wiig may seem more like a mildly autistic narcissist than a borderline, and the story may feel unsubstantial, but it is amusing to watch Alice create her entirely peculiar show and get into weird dietary fixations. The movie may not make a coherent whole, but the pieces are pretty good in themselves.

I think the film "Welcome to Me" is not for everyone and I am not surprised that the reviews are rather divergent. It's certainly a strange movie and one that might or might not appeal to you-- probably depending on how much you are willing to watch a film that often makes you embarrassed and has a very, very dark sensibility.

When the film begins, Alice (Kristen Wiig) has just won the lottery. However, she is mentally ill and foolishly decides that now she's rich, she doens't need her medication any more. So, she stops taking it and soon is blowing through her many millions of dollars. What does she blow it on??? I self-financed TV show all about her! It has very little in the way of conventional structure and the show is crazy...and, oddly, people think it's good. I assume they think it's meant to be a comedy...but the crazy antics and total self- absorption they see IS Alice.

The film is a very interesting character study of a woman with a Borderline Personality--especially of one whose hold on reality is very tenuous and whose narcissism is extreme, even for a Borderline. I was impressed by this character as well as her psychiatrist (Tim Robbins) as it looks as if whoever wrote the film knew about mental health issues and/or consulted with mental health professionals. Usually in films psychiatrists and psychologists are more caricatures--goofy one-dimensional idiots. Robbins' character is realistic, however-- with appropriate borders and methods. As for Wiig, she was entrancing in this strange role.

I am not 100% in love with this film--it is, at times, tough to watch and its overall message is certainly strange and mixed. Also, I hesitate to recommend it to everyone because Miss Wiig does a nude scene in which she's VERY nude....so be forewarned. An interesting film to watch if you feel like you've seen it all.

I am writing this review because I honestly think that its current rating does not do this movie justice. People seem to be disliking this movie because its not the Kristen Wiig movie or humor they expected. Or, because they have some opinion or experience on borderline personality disorder. Valid reasons, sure, but just take this movie as is, without any preconceived notions about what it should be. Its hilarious, and weird, and honestly the funniest movie I've seen in a long time. And, it has this perfectly charming mix of having a pretty unbelievable timeline but at the same time, being scarily relatable in a lot of ways. Highly recommend.

I was expecting a roll-on-the-floor comedy. After all, it's Kristin Wiig, and Will Ferrell as a producer.

It starts off funny enough. A woman obsessed with Oprah Winfrey feels screwed over in her past, but wins the lottery and wants to have her own talk show.

But it turns into an analysis of a "mental issue" and the diagnosis that goes along with that.

I think everyone has issues - but when you give these issues names then you marginalize & categorize people that further push people into little boxes.

By the end, I was moved to tears. This movie is so worth watching. But it's not the SNL-type skit you might be expecting.