The Year Between

The trailer did just enough to make this seem interesting. On top of being borderline bipolar myself, theTribeca laurel and Steve Buscemi sold it. Sadly this (The Family Stone Sans Christmas) missed the mark. The problem with these biopics is the writer often thinks no one else could possibly play the lead and they destroy the thing they worked so hard to build. A great lesson to young film makers out there, don't cast yourself if you're also going to direct it. The directing was also flawed, same old boring choices and settling for shocking blocking rather than getting actually creative with shots.

The dialogue however wasn't bad at all and at times there were a few laughs. I hope the writer will learn to hand off their next project to an actual director on the next outing.

Normally a girl with mental illness would just develop an eating disorder or cut herself or start a drug addiction. Not funny! In this movie however, the girl awkwardly tells everyone about her problems and generally makes everyone around her uncomfortable. She has a knack for being overly blunt, crude, and truthful. She makes poor decisions and then just goes with it and makes even worse decisions. Her life is completely messed up and she just embraces that. You can never be sure from the dialogue whether she likes or hates the person in front of her. Is this dark humor or just hilarious? You will know in the first 60 seconds if this movie is for you.

Just a waste of time. Getting angry of almost all main characters, how horrible they are to others. The main character, jeez, what an absolutely horrible person. And I wasn't convinced of her little change in the end. The biggest problem of hers wasn't the bipolar issue, she just was a self-centred ahole.

Talking about the diagnosis; I'm sorry but is this normal how a diagnosis is made in USA? I can't believe it, the doctor asks two only somewhat vague questions, to which the girl answers in a very unsure way, and boom, a bipolar diagnosis is made and IMMEDIATELY heavy drugs are prescribed to her. Unbelievable. What a hack that doctor was.

I noticed the low rating but failed to read any reviews. Mainly because I didn't care and also I'd already watched some of the movie before I went to the page. I had to make sure the brother was who I thought he was...anyway...so I thought this was a good movie! It made me laugh and made me tear up a few times. I thought the writing was so real sometimes and let's be serious more than one storyline is very real for someone somewhere! I'm guessing some people might think it made fun, or made lighten of mental illness. I still haven't read any reviews so just a guess as to the rating. I didn't see it that way at all. It wouldn't surprise me at all if the writer/director knows mental Illness first hand, this just had some very real elements as far as bi polar goes. All that aside, if it was all 100% fictional it was still good! Smart funny writing and very well cast. I haven't seen or heard of this girl in anything else but I'll be looking into that. I liked her and I liked this movie.

As someone with bipolar disorder, I was shocked to see how negatively Clemence was portrayed in this movie. She appeared violent, irrational and dangerous. These are stereotypes of people with serious mental illnesses that need to stop. There are certainly highs and lows that can be unsafe, but they are not the full story. They touched on the struggles one has when trying to find the right medication mix. But there is a lot more to that story than they told. Getting stable is a horrific process and humiliating at times and very scary. This is the true story of the struggle and the courage of people with mental illness. Not that of people around them who judge and don't understand. And the preposterous promise that exercise and meditation can solve a mental disorder is total BS. It does not and never has been a solution.