Words On Bathroom Walls
The sensitive subject of youths struggling with schizophrenia is realistically portrayed in this drama/romance marketed at teenage audiences. Its purpose is not only to entertain but indirectly to educate young audiences about this chronic mental disorder which allows for visual and auditory hallucinations.
Charlie Plummer delivers an outstanding performance as Adam, an awkward and socially inept teenager who suffers from this disease. He attends a new school mid-semester owing to the bullying he acquired from his previous school and a therapeutic romance blossoms with his tutor. His mother is on a fruitless mission to find a cure.
This film perfectly depicts the effects of schizophrenia, the following dialogue delivered by Adam summing up the harsh reality of people’s general perception of the illness, “When you’re a cancer kid people are so eager to grant you any wish, but when you have schizophrenia people just treat you differently.”
Audiences will feel the pain of this tortured youth and experience the voices and imaginary characters which aid him with his day to day decision making. The effects on his loved ones are also explored. If audiences walk away from the cinema with a sympathetic outlook upon people suffering from schizophrenia, then this film has achieved its goal. (MMo)
★★★★
