To the Bone

I am male, fat and old, yet I understood this movie. Not wanting to eat never made sense to me. Seems like the simplest problem to solve, I mean I eat pretty much non-stop and the idea of not wanting to eat is not easy to relate to for me. But I empathized with these characters. They weren't caricatures, and they weren't dumbed down. There was no pat ending, but that reflects the reality of anorexia in real-life.

I was especially entranced with Lily Collins and Alex Sharp. Both seemed like wise old adults in many ways until they would show images of their gaunt bodies and they are nothing but children.

I know a movie like this can only give a glimpse it this problem, but seeing humans I could relate to go through these problems made it more real than reading an article or a book.

I highly recommend this movie.

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.

I wanted to review this movie since it hits close to home. I have battled anorexia since I was 13. I think the movie was good about showing what it is like minus the family stuff. ..obviously that is for each individual. I also did not have my period for a long time and overly exercised even if I saw white spots. The only reason I went to a doctor at 15 is because after a couple years of me "embarassing" my mother in front of the church or her teachers at school, people kept asking why she wouldn't do anything (and she cares what strangers think) . She finally took me to a psychologist and lo and behold that lady had anorexia when she was younger and basically gave me death stares. ..& said almost all of the things in the movie that they tell her in the beginning like "just eat" , "your organs are going to fail", threatening a tube in my nose etc. It was almost like a newly sober person that suddenly despises anyone who uses and needs them to be on their level OR else. That was my experience with that psychologist. And the things I mentioned they tell you. ..That is like telling a smoker not to smoke. If it was that easy, no one would smoke or have anorexia for years. Needless to say, I did not see her for long then I saw a couple people (psychiatrists) after that but never for very long.

Anyway, if I had had a doctor that got it more like Keanu or a program like that then maybe I would have gotten better sooner, especially with him not being interested in the family or food talk like most. One thing that did bug me is how many chances she got. .I get some people's families might could do that but kind of not unrealistic for a lot. Anyone who does not have an eating disorder, I do not think this movie glorifies eating disorders. It might stir up OLD feelings, but if you are over it enough, you can be objective and empathetic. Even if you are in the depths of an eating disorder, you are just going to be like yup, yup...that is how it is even though it really does not go too far into the overthinking since it more about the girl's journey. I do not think it would trigger anyone more unless they are younger like 13 to 18 because I use to get more ideas from documentaries, books, and movies about anorexia to be honest. BUT from someone who used to get those ideas from those things, I really would not get many, if any, from this movie.

Do NOT watch this if you have suffered from an eating disorder. It is vert difficult to handle even if the disorder has long been recovered from. The movie weirdly enough made me want to stop eating again. I had to stop watching it halfway through. I do NOT recommend! However, for people who have not suffered from eating disorders, please do watch! It helps people gain a better understanding, which is why I gave it a 6/10.

This one's tricky.

It has beautiful shots, great acting, charming potential. It has humor. It has frightening appearances of semi-well known actors thin as paper to pull off their roles. I'm impressed with Lily Collins' acting. I'm impressed with the message that the movie is trying to pull off.

So what's the tricky part, you ask?

There is way too much hinted at that never gets resolution. Some of the house-members get nothing for story. Some of their behaviors never get explanation. Expulsions are hinted at, but never resolved.

What we have here is that tricky realm of trying to make a movie without beating the audience over the head with a message, and that's just plain hard to do. It's a tightrope walk, and should you veer too far over one side (or the other), you're going down.

This is okay if your focus is only on Ellen's story, while you stop caring about the rest of them, but... They bring them too close to Ellen and too close to the nature of what they are trying to combat to simply disregard them later on, which is where you run into trouble with "message movies".

I always think of the tightrope walk that was Norman Jewison's ...And Justice For All, starring Al Pacino. Talk about being beaten over the head with a message... and yet Jewison still managed to make at least an enjoyable story about it.

But it wasn't Rollerball. It didn't have a driving theme throughout the movie that used its message only as backdrop, while it pushed Jonathan E and his quest to find a way to keep playing the game he loved, even while everything and everyone was trying to push him out. There, the message was behind the story, and we still got it.

Here, the message drives the story, and that doesn't nearly work as well.

I will say this, that it does bring to light a lot about eating disorders and the way the world looks at eating disorders, and there certainly is a lot here that works well at trying to understand how difficult it is to heal from such a thing.

I only wish there was a better movie, behind it all.