The idea for the title came while browsing through mental health news articles. One,from India caught my eye. DR. ENNAPADAM S. KRISHNAMOORTHY,writes:"Once again, in October, I had the privilege of attending Chennai's international festival of short films on mental health, “Frame of Mind” organised by SCARF (the Schizophrenia Research Foundation India). My task was to interact with the audience after the Richard Gere film, “Mr. Jones” about an extraordinarily charming man with bipolar affective disorder (manic depressive illness)."
The review of the film is superb. I've seen the film, in fact I own the film. I bought it years ago simply because of the high profile actors, and the fact WalMart was selling it for a dollar. Often they have tubs of films marked down and you have to patiently go through them to find a bargain. It is not one of his better films and I, not having read about the movie, did not know at first he was portraying a bipolar victim.
I did not at the time think too much of it, and had it not been for the review I would not say it was an especially good movie. But on a second evaluation, I can see how it would show the actions of a manic episode. A little hyped up probably and it is well to understand that not all manic depressive patients act this way.
In the review, the members of the group discuss the film and comment. Someone mentioned there was a difference in American ways of looking at Bipolar than perhaps in theirs, but truthfully, I would have thought it was written by an American psychiatrist or psychologist, had I not been told the review originated in India.
Issues they brought up, are issues here. In order to get movie goers to buy a ticket, there must be a love relationship. There is one in this movie, and that is a no no there as well as here. But the heroine takes herself off the case afterwards, since she understands she overstepped the bounds of medical ethics. Again I say, read the review, then watch the movie if you want to get a glimpse of manic-depression in action.
I agree with the reviewers the movie should be 'taken with a grain of salt'. Movies and real life are not the same. And certainly where bipolar and other mental illnesses are concerned, there are certain characteristics common to each illness that can be looked for, but for bipolar, the hyped up episodes mainly follow the individual traits of the person.
As an example, take a so called normal person in his or her ups and downs and fast forward these. The actions would all be different because the personality, ambitions, and makeup of the individual are different. It is the acceleration of the mood that makes it out of place. As in the case of the movie "Mr. Jones", one would get the notion by watching the movie, he thought he could fly like a bird. Normal people like to fly, and they do, but they do so by simulation, in planes designed for the purpose of flying.
By contrast a bipolar victim could just as easily go beyond the limits of the norm, and with acceleration of their desire to set the world straight would start preaching to crowds about the fact if God had wanted man to fly he would have given him wings. Of course that is true, but the earth is not heaven, and mere mortals are not angels.
Back to the the Hindu magazine and the article about Mind Matters and "A True Balance." It is one of the best descriptions about the heartbreak of bipolar I have read, at least recently. I will be checking in with them regularly to see what other pertinent ideas they generate concerning health issues. As a note: When researching a topic and the news source is Hindu, check it out. This is the daily paper of India, and is a well respected paper. The magazine with the review just mentioned, is aligned with this paper.
PS: The scroungy looking art work is, like the victims of mental illness, somewhat torn and out of sorts. It is nothing more than a collage I designed once as a book cover. The book was written, the cover was designed, but neither went the file cabinet. To me it is a window on the world as seen through a window pane. And of course I will not apologize for it being frayed and tattered, aren't we of the world, especially those who suffer from mental illnesses not of our own making, also frayed and tattered? We want nothing more than to see light at the end of the tunnel.
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