In early August I am scheduled to teach psych nursing to a class of LVN students. I am looking for accurate portrayals of mental illness in movies. The first one that I thought of was “A Beautiful Mind”, maybe a little bit over the top with Russell Crowe in full Oscar mode, but I am more worried about foul language and I can’t really recall the dialogue in that film.
Any suggestions? Movies from the past few years would be best since these students are YOUNG and would be bored by a “crazy” Jack Nicholson. And if you have any links to psych sites (say that 4 times real fast) on the internet, that would be very helpful as well. Thanks!
Repulsion, The Story of Adele H., and Vertigo are three well known examples of movies about mental illness. I don’t know how accurate their depictations of mental illness are.
Phoebe in Wonderland is about a girl with tourette’s. I really don’t have enough experience with Tourette’s to know how accurate it really is, but it’s a possibility.
Lisa and David, Girl Interrupted, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden. There’s a whole sub-genre of MPD films (Sybil, Three Faces of Eve, et al), but there’s growing skepticism about that whole diagnosis.
Do you want movies that portray mental illness, or movies that portray mental illness well? There’s plenty of the former, few of the latter. Most are more dry documentary types. Like I think Nash from A Beautiful Mind was more delusional, and I think his hallucinations were mostly auditory (like the majority of schizophrenics), but it makes a better film if he sees things.
Matchstick Men is OCD. It’s a bit over the top, but okay.
A beautiful mind may not work because I don’t think Nash saw people walking around like the characters in the movie. Not sure though, but that may give a false impression of delusional psychosis.
Canvas is a good movie. It is about a father and son coming to grips with the fact that their mom isn’t the person she used to be (due to schizophrenia), and may never be again.
If it does, then let’s add Withnail & I. Requiem for a Dream is a bit dark but has several types of substance abuse. A Scanner Darkly is I guess drugs, in fantasy land, although Robert Downey Jr.'s mannerisms are very addict-y (wonder where he learned that?)
I don’t like your odds of finding a copy of it but Promise, a made for TV movie from 1986 was an excellent film. Starring James Garner who must suddenly take custody of his younger brother following their mothers death. The younger brother, played by James Woods, suffers from schizophrenia and epilepsy. The film focuses on the difficulty of caring for such a person at home as well as the state of co-called “care” provided by some facilities.
It’s been a while since I saw Shine, but that might have potential.
There was one recently with Jamie Foxx as a homeless guy with mental illness but he also had some kind of synaesthesia(if that is the right word) and made beautiful music with beautiful pretty swirly things…only saw the trailer, never watched it, because it looked like patronising rubbish.
If you can access BBC stuff, you might be able to get hold of Stephen Fry’s documentaries on bipolar/depression.
Conrad Aiken’s short story, “Silent Snow, Secret Snow,” was televised on Night Gallery (I think it is on YouTube) and I think perhaps there was another movie of it, as well.
If you’re looking for an accurate portrayal of mental illness, I think foul language might be part of the territory. Are these students unaccustomed to swearing? If so (seems doubtful, though), they’d better get used to it.
I recently saw the movie Elling (it’s on the Wikipedia list under “Anxiety Disorders” and it’s very sweet. It’s in Norwegian, tho.
And, I can’t remember the language. It’s streaming on Netflix if you have Netflix, you could pre-screen it. The movie did touch on sex a little bit but I don’t remember how graphic it was.
For something a little lighter, there’s “Benny & Joon.” A romantic comedy about an eccentric guy (Johnny Depp) trying to have a relationship w/ a mentally ill girl (Mary Stuart Masterson). I thought they portrayed the illness fairly accurately.
