• Home
  • Meetings
  • Events
  • Blog
  • E-Board
  • Around Boston
NUFEC
.

Carter Sigl on Infinitely Polar Bear

7/3/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
I’m gonna be totally honest about this one: the only reason I decided to review Infinitely Polar Bear is because I wanted to meet Mark Ruffalo (my interview with him and director Maya Forbes will be posted this weekend). When you get a chance to meet someone that famous, it doesn’t matter what movie they’re in; hell, I’d gladly sit through a Michael Bay or M. Night Shamala-ding-dong movie if I could my reward was meeting the Hulk. Fortunately, Infinitely Polar Bear turned out to be a pleasant (if occasionally too sappy) comedy-drama.

Mark Ruffalo plays Cam Stuart, a loving father of two young daughters: Amelia and Faith (played respectively by Imogene Wolodarsky and Ashley Aufderheide). He comes from a wealthy and respected Bostonian family, but since his mother controls all the money and she’s picky about how much the rest of the family gets, Cam and his wife Maggie (Zoe Saldana) have to work for a living. The problem is Cam has bipolar disorder (known as manic-depressive illness in the 1970s, when the movie is set) and has trouble holding down a steady job, making Maggie the main breadwinner. But because she’s a black woman, and this is the 70s, she has to go back to school to get a higher degree in order to support the family. This leaves Cam to raise Amelia and Faith while struggling to keep his illness in check.

Mental illness is a tricky subject for most media to deal with, and few movies have portrayed those with them in a realistic manner (*coughcough*Silver Linings Playbook*coughcough*), although some of the more recent ones have cleaved a bit closer to reality, such as Clair Danes’ character Carrie Mathison in Homeland. Although it occasionally ventures a bit too far into ‘overly heart-warming’ territory in order to tug on viewer’s heartstrings, Infinitely Polar Bear pleased me by not overly romanticizing mental illness and by showing it in a reasonably realistic manner. During his highpoint, Cam is ‘manic’ in every sense of the word, deciding to do anything from barraging into his long-vacated childhood home without thought of the current occupants or to suddenly turn his bedroom into a bicycle repair shop. When he’s down, he may forget to buy food for himself and his children. Since this is the 70s, the illness is very poorly understood and medication is only non-existent, and medical practice regarding mental health patients is primitive, to say the least.

Yet Cam’s defining characteristic is not his illness but his love for his family. His illness certainly complicates his relationships with them, but it is shown as merely a fact of life for him. And of course because this is a dramadey film based around family it has a number of heartwarming family moments which, even if they’re sometimes a bit sappier than is strictly necessary, they never feel forced or artificial. It is these two traits that I like most about the film, and I hope that this film can serve as an example for Hollywood as a proper way to deal with mental illness (and other prickly subjects) in cinema.

Grade: B
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Categories

    All
    AJ Martin
    Andy Robinson
    Anime
    Anthony Formicola
    Anu Gulati
    Arjun Agarwal
    Arzu Martinez
    Ben Garbow
    Brandon Isaacson
    Brian Hamilton
    Carter Sigl
    Dan Simeone
    Discussion
    Elizabeth Johnson Wilson
    Eliza Rosenberry
    Emily Fisler
    Erick Sanchez
    Eric Tatar
    Essays
    Festivals
    Gabrielle Ulubay
    Grace Phalon
    Haley Emerson
    Here's Some Movies
    Ian Wolff
    IFF Boston
    IFFBoston 2015
    Interviews
    Isaac Feldberg
    Kunal Asarsa
    Library
    Lists
    Marguerite Darcy
    Marissa Marchese
    Marli Dorn
    Mary Tobin
    Meghan Murphy
    Mike Muse
    Mitch Macro
    Neel Shah
    Netflix Instant Watch
    Parth Parekh
    Patrick Roos
    Profiles
    Reviews
    Short Films
    Television
    This Week In Movies
    Tyler Rosini

    Want to Write for Us?

    Contact NUFEC at [email protected] if you're interested in writing for this blog!

    Archives

    October 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    April 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    October 2019
    September 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.