Movies and other productions that want to bring up issues about mental illness should be really careful. It needs both sensitivity, and effort to attain enough entertainment value. Many have tried to make it, like 13 Reasons Why, but the success has always been overshadowed by some serious notes from people regarding its careless handle in depicting glorification of bullying and committing suicide.
However, an original movie by Netflix comes in with more
compelling aspects, compared to the previous forerunner. It’s called All the
Bright Places, a movie about mental issue portrayal that I recently watched. As
far as I concerned, based on the reviews, too, the movie is able to avoid doing
the same mistake that was previously made. It explores the issue with such
care, while still being visually pleasing and enjoyable overall.
All the Bright Places follows two teenagers who were
emotionally scarred. They suffered from each, different traumatic events and
mental condition. The two, finally, found strength and sanctuary from each
other.
The movie was opened with a scene, where the girl was shown
standing on the edge of a bridge, seemingly about to jump. Then, the boy came
to here, asking what she’s doing. But since he sensed a cry of help right
there, he made a series of ultimate effort to get close to her in hope his
presence would give a sort of support, and eventually made difference.
The way the girl was reluctant at first, she finally let
some space in her life for the boy and, indeed, found joy along the process.
Though the ending doesn’t seem like the most preferable option, the movie has
been able to show us more than that.
Through this movie, we can learn how difficult it actually
is to deal with, and recover from a tragedy. The point is, the relationship between
the two damaged people isn’t solely about love, but rather discovering the
importance of opening up to someone, and being that someone who could
understand without judging. When we keep our feelings to ourselves, we often
distance ourselves with the world, right? But that’s not how it’s all supposed
to work. By distancing ourselves, we prevent ourselves from getting healed,
too, so it’s probably right to say that the first step we have to take to
healing is to open up and move on.
What makes the movie even more unique is the representation
of different ways people often do to deal with their depression or trauma.
Unlike the girl, the boy doesn’t seem to try to talk about his feeling, despite
his presence in order to make the girl feel helped. The portrayal of how these
two young people handle their conditions is intense, but the story itself never
puts any entitlement nor judgment on each of them. If anything, I’ll say the
movie understands the characters so well and appreciates every possible way of a
person handling their own mental illness.
From what I see from the movie and other references, people
with the most overwhelming struggles are often the ones with the biggest,
deepest capacity of empathy towards other. Not only because do they think helping
others will distract them from their struggles, they also who most likely know
how it feels to be on the other side. So, I realize that opening up can be
found helpful in some cases of mental illness, but in some other way, the
healing needs to be with more than the help of other people. The juxtaposition
of the need of being help and various kinds of help is shown beautifully, yet
very sympathetically in this movie.
In the end, the movie All the Bright Places is such a
wake-up call for us about the existence and urgency of coping with mental
illness. Although I recognize there were some cliché scenes and scripts, too,
in it, the intention of this movie felt so honest and pure, and intriguing
making it shine from the beginning to end, and spotlights mental illness just
right.