# Movies that portray mental illness **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 12, 2010, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-portray-mental-illness/546357 "2010-07-12T03:24:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2010, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-portray-mental-illness/546357/21 "2010-07-12T17:31:18Z")
_Girl, Interrupted_ is pretty good, with a decent cast. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2010, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-portray-mental-illness/546357/22 "2010-07-12T17:41:16Z")
The Effect of Gamma Rays On Man In The Moon Marigolds for Borderline Personality Disorder. No dramatic mental ward or couch scenes, but then most mental illness IRL goes untreated, too. Other posters have offered excellent films, but I’d bet this one most likely to make audience members get up and leave in tears. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2010, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-portray-mental-illness/546357/23 "2010-07-12T17:59:34Z")
The TVTtropes page [Hollywood Psych,](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HollywoodPsych) and pages thereon linked, should at least give you some hints on what movies to **avoid** for your purposes and why. ---
**Author:** ![powerjacob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f05b48/32.png) [@powerjacob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/powerjacob)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2010, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-portray-mental-illness/546357/24 "2010-07-12T19:53:32Z")
The Fisher King One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest I know they aren’t recent, but still good. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2010, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-portray-mental-illness/546357/25 "2010-07-12T20:29:18Z")
Mr. Jones is a pretty accurate portrayal of bipolar disorder. ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2010, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-portray-mental-illness/546357/26 "2010-07-12T21:43:22Z")
**Numb** is a movie about depersonalization disorder, and having lived with it myself I think it’s accurate. Not everyone is the same so portrayal of any illness will vary. BTW if you have Netflix **Numb** is available for instant viewing. It’s not the greatest romantic comedy in the world but it was worth watching. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2010, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-portray-mental-illness/546357/27 "2010-07-12T21:48:03Z")
Would the recent Dr Who episode with Vincent van Gogh be useful? It manages to be both light and serious at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2010, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-portray-mental-illness/546357/28 "2010-07-12T22:23:23Z")
The play was better than the movie, IMO, but _Proof_ is pretty good. Though I’m not sure precisely what the mental illness there would be called… Probably something under the umbrella of schizophrenia. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2010, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-portray-mental-illness/546357/29 "2010-07-12T22:34:13Z")
Sean Penn’s [The Indian Runner](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Indian_Runner)is as good a depiction of antisocial personality disorder as I’ve seen. Frank (Viaggo Mortensen) isn’t evil in the way criminals are depicted traditionally. He just doesn’t care about anyone but himself. People, including his pregnant wife, are only valuable insofar as they amuse him. When confronted with how despicable his behavior is, he deflects skillfully on how well others have it and how he’s never gotten the breaks. This is pretty transparent on screen, but I’ll bet most of us have heard the chronic losers in our lives say those lines almost verbatim. ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2010, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-portray-mental-illness/546357/30 "2010-07-13T00:37:03Z")
Sorry I just rewatched **Numb** and I see it’s not really appropriate for your needs. There’s some slight nudity and brief sex scenes. Still if anyone wants to know about depersonalization or detachment Matthew Perry does a fine job of it. ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2010, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-portray-mental-illness/546357/31 "2010-07-13T00:55:09Z")
> [@Bob Ducca](#): > > 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. Nitpick While I havent watched Benny & Joon for years, I thought Johnny Depp’s character was more that just simply eccentric, maybe having a moderate case of autism or something similar—I don’t recall if it was directly spelled out in the movie, but I am pretty sure he was supposed to have had some mental health issues of own… ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2010, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-portray-mental-illness/546357/32 "2010-07-13T01:10:19Z")
I don’t know that any movie I’ve seen, other than some documentaries with real mentally ill people, has ever had a truly realistic representation of mental illness. People who are _really_ mentally ill are almost unwatchable in a visceral sense. Mental illness depicted in the movies is almost always far more scrubbed clean and less messy than real life. Within limits "[The Madness of King George"](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Madness_of_King_George) did a good job with his take on that affliction. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2010, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-portray-mental-illness/546357/33 "2010-07-13T01:55:26Z")
A biopic of Diane Arbus would have been a great opportunity to use bipolarism as a theme, (and given Vincent Van Gough a respite) but that won’t happen, since they’ve already made [Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0422295/) as a stylish icky-fest. Take that, complacent 1950’s America. ---
**Author:** ![Sehmket](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Sehmket](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sehmket)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2010, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-portray-mental-illness/546357/34 "2010-07-13T02:07:47Z")
> [@SurrenderDorothy](#): > > 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. I’d like to second this - both as a movie-lover, and as someone who has a family member with Tourette’s. What I love is how much it effects the family - you just don’t understand what’s going on, and even though you love the person, it’s hard to just keep smiling and saying everything’s ok (especially when you’re a kid). ---
**Author:** ![Quercus\_alba](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quercus_alba/32/4061_2.png) [@Quercus\_alba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus_alba)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2010, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-portray-mental-illness/546357/35 "2010-07-13T02:16:41Z")
> [@Lo-Slung\_Denim](#): > > 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. > . _The Soloist_. Except for the synesthesia, I thought it was a pretty accurate portrayal of the real life challenges of homeless schizophrenics. And Foxx nailed the more intangible, less dramatic “feel” of what it can be like to talk to an untreated schizophrenic. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2010, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-portray-mental-illness/546357/36 "2010-07-13T05:00:08Z")
Speaking of Johnny Depp, [Secret Window](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0363988/) (2004) might fill the bill. Oh, I know. [The Piano Player](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0254686/), a French film from 2001. I warn you that it’s a bit disturbing, though. ---
**Author:** ![lawoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/35a633/32.png) [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2010, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-portray-mental-illness/546357/37 "2010-07-13T07:52:01Z")
> [@beckwall](#): > > 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. I hate saying it, but why worry about foul language? Anyone who is easily offended by obscenity probably shouldn’t go into psych nursing to begin with (I’ve worked on a locked in-patient ward for over ten years - even the KIDS swear like sailors). ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2010, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-portray-mental-illness/546357/38 "2010-07-13T09:17:01Z")
One of the theater classes at the school where I teach staged a production of [The Boys Next Door](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boys_Next_Door_(play)), about four men with various mental problems who live together and are looked after by a social worker. The play was really great–very funny but also quite serious at times. I happened upon a film adaptation on television the other day with Nathan Lane and Robert Sean Leonard, and I didn’t get to watch it for very long but it looked pretty faithful to the play. I don’t know if it’s available to buy or rent. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2010, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-portray-mental-illness/546357/39 "2010-07-13T13:07:15Z")
_Harold and Maude_, a surprisingly sweet comedy about suicidal ideation. _The Seven Percent Solution_, in which Dr. Sigmund Freud himself treats Sherlock Holmes for cocaine addiction and the psychological aftershocks of childhood trauma. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2010, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-portray-mental-illness/546357/40 "2010-07-13T14:56:27Z")
Sex and the City 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-portray-mental-illness/546357.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-portray-mental-illness/546357.md?page=3)