Eating disorder is a very serious yet common problem among teenagers. there are not much of the media (such as films or TV shows) that depicts about it. there are a few, but sadly it didn't got much attention. so, when i first heard of this movie, i was pretty excited. and when i finished watching this movie, i was... pretty confused.
no, it's not that the plot that is confusing, rather than the movie's quality. is this movie a better movie about eating disorder? YES. is this a great movie? i don't think so.
Let's start with the acting. well, i'm going to give me praise to lily collins. this is definitely a better performance from her. It showed how much she actually cares about this character and film. Keanu Reeves' performance is weak and at times forced. other supporting actors are doing a pretty good job. even they didn't really develop well, which brings out my main problem to this movie, development. characters which are far more interesting to know is drawn out, by you can guess it- cheap subplot romance.
i do expect a romance from this film when i watched the trailers. but i didn't think it's going to take much time that it drowns out the actual story i'm expecting. the first half of the movie, when the romance doesn't got involved, i'm pretty much in love. it portrays how much our main character is struggling. but after the whole romance got involved, it became unbalanced. those time could be used for actual things to make us feel more about the main character, but it dumbly got drowned out and only slipped by a line or two. i know that too much flashback is a pain, but seeing how this movie focuses on her struggle and journey, could you please at least show us a thing or two that make her struggling? at least, the ending makes it all up, it has some great emotional moments, that scene with her biological mother is somehow works out pretty well.
all and all, it's still a decent movie. and by this, i wish there are more movies about the topic.
