The film I chose to look at is Silver Linings Playbook (2012). The movie follows the main character, Patrick’s, release from his court ordered stay at a mental institution. The story focuses on Patrick’s adjustment to being back at home and trying to “fix everything” while navigating his illness.
Patrick is diagnosed with bipolar disorder. The film depicts his disorder with three major attributes: extreme mood swings, paranoia, and aggression. All of which are stereotypical traits of bipolar disorder. Pat’s mood swings are extreme and happen when he is triggered by his own overactive brain. He will have a perfectly fine day, but once left with his own thoughts (usually thoughts about his past relationship which is a causation for his institutionalization) for fifteen minutes, becomes argumentative and violent. His paranoia and delusions are spelled out the entirety of the film, as he is constantly paranoid about people “being out to get him” and constantly delusional about his current self compared to his past self. All of his actions throughout the entire film are devoted to him becoming better in order to go back to his way of life prior to his institutionalization. However, his delusions play the role of convincing him he’s in a better spot by feeding himself news of his ex-wife wanting him, or being automatically cured through his performative actions. All of these attributes are well-known symptoms of bipolar disorder, and the film does a good job of not making his illness into a joke to conquer like most do. However due to the nature of the film being set around one particular person’s experiences, it obviously does not encapsulate the disorder in its entirety and mainly relies on the more stereotyped bits and pieces to convey.
Along with the depiction of bipolar disorder, this film illustrates the stigma of mental disorders and how they affect day to day perceptions of those who are diagnosed. Pat’s parents, while extremely supportive of him, are embarrassed about his mental state at the beginning of the film and convince themselves that there is nothing wrong with their son. Consequently feeding into Pat’s own delusions about his mental wellbeing. Further, Pat’s brother and his friends perceive Pat’s illness as a joke and call him various names, such as “crazy” and “loon”, overall making a joke out of his disorder and the fact he was institutionalized. This embarrassment comes from the fact that throughout history mental illness has been treated as something taboo, and if you are affected by it, you should be ashamed of. The film did an excellent job of representing how the perception of mental illnesses affect how the public treats those affected.
Overall, while a little one dimensional, it is obvious the writers of this movie did put in effort to portray mental disorders well by humanizing those who live with them and not making them out to be monsters.
