When I heard about this movie I was sceptical. I am a male who has suffered from Anorexia since I was 14 (I am 25 now) and have been in 2 inpatient units during this time. I have gone from a weight that literally caused my heart to stop to one that is normal according to society and have recently graduated to become a doctor.
To The Bone starts off with an all too familiar look into the life of someone with an eating disorder in an inpatient unit. Once she is 'let loose' into the world she is clearly no where close to recovery. We get some degree of insight into her life struggling with her condition. Lily Collins is perfectly suited to this role given her eating disorder history. I am slightly concerned that this role may have set something off in her mind to trigger a relapse (if not now, then in the future), but as long as she has been able to cope I am more at ease. The attention to detail into her character's daily life is incredible. From being able to recite calories in foods to the countless hours spent doing sit-ups in her room, I was amazed as to how accurate they wanted this movie to be. In my eyes, it was in no way an exaggeration and could be considered an under- representation as to the daily life of someone with an eating disorder.
As the story progresses the tone becomes a lot more serious. It makes it quite hard to watch at times, because you do feel concerned for the well being of the main character and her family. It certainly made me emotional at times because it re- surfaced memories of things I put me and my family through. Again, this just highlights how eerily accurate the film portrays the condition. I could literally put names of people I met during recovery to the faces of the characters (patients, doctors, nurses and family members included).
Aside from being concerned as to the well being of Lily Collins in this role, the other problem I had going into watching this movie was that it may glamorise eating disorders. However, after the first 10 minutes of watching it I knew this was not the case. It felt a lot more like seeing the world through a real anorexic's eyes.
The other obvious problem I had was that this may be potentially 'triggering' for people with eating disorders. I still have this reservation, however I cannot conceive any way a film like this could not have been triggering. Every person experiences an eating disorder differently and have their own personal triggers. Anything in this film could have been triggering for different reasons. What I know is that those without the condition will receive an invaluable insight into the life of someone with an eating disorder. In a world where awareness for such disorders is certainly on the up, many people still think eating disorders are a 'life choice' and that sufferers should just eat. i hope this film makes people realise the daily struggles of sufferers and that it offers sufferers ambition to recover.
