Mad Love

The high-school student Matt Leland (Chris O'Donnell) lives with his twin brother and sister and his father in a house by the lake. When the teenager Casey Roberts (Drew Barrymore) moves to the house on the other side of the lake, Matt snoops into her room with his telescope. They meet each other and soon they fall in love with each other. One day, Matt is taking a test at school and Casey activates the fire alarm to stop the test. She is suspended and her father decides to check her into a psychiatric institution. However Matt breaks her out of the hospital. They travel in Matt's car and have lots of fun until the day Matt discovers that Casey has bipolar disorder with periods of depression and periods of elevated mood. When she tries to commit suicide, Matt realizes that she needs specialized help.

"Mad Love" is a road movie with a tale of madness and sort of teen version of "The Girl from Trieste". Matt Leland is a good student and son that changes his behavior when he falls in love with the maniac depressive Casey that has arrived from Chicago. When she is interned in an institution, he believes that her family is unfair with the girl. But when he realizes that her mental illness is serious and dangerous, he contacts her family and they find the solution for her treatment. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Amor Louco" ("Mad Love")

This is a love story, of sorts, which conflicts the viewer in that it tenderly presents this tragic heroine and then shocks the audience by eloquently demonstrating the ins and outs of the moderate-to-severe bi-polar disorder, with which the heroine attempts to live.

(The mother states her daughter suffers from depression, but Drew's depiction does NOT indicate depression alone. There are extreme highs and bottom-dipping lows, which would be more indicative of manic depression or bi-polar disorder than depression alone. Not to minimize the life-changing effects of clinical or chemical depression, because I'm not.)

Drew generates a stellar performance here, and fully sells the range of emotions her character experiences. Her portrayal is dead on perfect; in not just the disease itself, but her depth and range here is nothing short of phenomenal.

Chris O'Donnell is not as lacking as some would make one believe. He contributes an adequate performance as a young man without a clue; therefore, his character is vastly disliked because he comes off as clueless, and movie-goers associated him with the character. Go figure.

This work is seriously underrated, primarily due to the unsatisfactorily heart-wrenching ending, but also due to the audiences inability to conceive of Drew as anything but bubbly and intelligent. She customarily takes parts in which her character is put in a sweet (if rose-colored) light, whereas her role herein is quite edgy and tragic.

The screenplay itself is not solid. The flux is very fluid within this story. The only solid thing here are the performances by Drew and Chris, and the profound sadness and sense of loss experienced by its viewers via the execution of the story line.

I actually enjoyed this, though the ending IS unsettling and fails to satisfy.

It rates an 8.4/10 from...

the Fiend :.

Well, I have to say I really did like this movie. I went in expecting to hate it. I really tried hard to hate it. Normally I hate the "romantic mush" type films, but... this movie actually transcended that. Instead of focusing mainly on the love, they focused on the mental illness. Heh, I have some issues myself, so I was able to relate quite a bit to her character. I'm severely agoraphobic, so I'd never run away, lol. I love Drew Barrymore. I think she's sexy through and through, absolutely adorable to boot. I will give any movie with her in it a chance. Some I loathe, some I like, some I love. "NEVER BEEN KISSED" is one that I loathe... But oh my, she was so cute! - I say everyone should give this movie a chance. Ignore the "violent" behavior and the irrational behavior, because you can't properly portray such a mental illness without it. I also don't think a movie dealing with mental illness to this depth should be rated R. I love that this film showed that those of us with mental illness are people too. We too have feelings. I wish I'd watched it sooner rather than just assuming I'd probably not like it.

This wasn't necessarily a bad movie, but it wasn't that good either. It desperately tried to cash in on the teen audience, with a "hip" cast and soundtrack, but as a teenager I couldn't really relate. Chris O'Donnell's performance was pretty bland, but Drew spiced it up a bit. It started to get better towards the end when we finally got to see the extent of Drew's depression, but the first 3/4 of the movie was such a paint by numbers approach to a romance that I'm not sure that it was worth the wait. Leaves little to criticize, but even less to praise.

It seems like the title of this movie was chosen at the last minute by the guy in the business suit. "So it's about a coupla teenagers, let's say they're 'in love', and one of them has mental problems, let's call her crazy..." The film itself though, I think, resists cliches, especially the fact that the four letter word (love) was avoided, which has a tendency to suck dry any useful plot content that might be found in a movie, opting for some different ways of illustrating their relationship. The two main characters are well portrayed, and believable. I think Barrymore and O'Donnell hold together something that may not have great elements like soundtrack, plot originality etc, because despite the fact that Drew's eyebrows really annoyed me, they both did a good job.