5 Movies on Mental Health that taught me about Life.
I am not an avid movie buff, but there are some that I absolutely love to watch whenever I am seeking something meaningful to learn from. Here are my hand-picked movies that I have watched multiple times that helped me understand the complexity of human emotions in a phenomenal way. Each character in these movies holds a distinct personality that will definitely make you understand the beauty of human existence.
My top 5 movies on Mental Health and Human emotions are…
1. Rain Man (1988)
The movie stars Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman star in this road trip film following two brothers in the wake of their father’s death, complicated by the fact that the two had never met each other. Hoffman plays an autistic savant who is left with his father’s multimillion-dollar estate, much to the chagrin of Tom Cruise’s character.
This is one masterpiece and one of its kind movie featuring the most sought-after actors placed in their absolute best characters. Released in the late 80s, it talks about autism and how people age with it. It surely showed the good and evil side of the family if you are the ones who are suffering. And truly, family members are the ones who are the closest to knowing how it feels like raising a child with Autism.
2. A Beautiful Mind (2001)
This critically-acclaimed Russel Crowe film is about a mathematician, Professor John Nash, who begins to develop paranoid Schizophrenia and endures delusional episodes while watching the burden his condition brings on his wife Alicia and friends.
I must have watched this movie at least ten times during different phases of my life. I was recommended to watch this masterpiece by our Psychology teacher in High School to understand how people suffering from Schizophrenia see the world.
The movie was an eye-opener for me specifically in terms of how the disease has a crucial impact on the families of Schizophrenic patients. A super complex mental illness that is not curable to date. Though a variety of antipsychotic medications are effective in reducing the psychotic symptoms present in the acute phase of the illness, they also help reduce the potential for future acute episodes and their severity.
3. As Good as It Gets (1997)
As Good as It Gets is a 1997 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by James L. Brooks, who co-wrote it with Mark Andrus. The film stars Jack Nicholson as a misanthropic, bigoted, and obsessive-compulsive novelist, Helen Hunt as a single mother with a chronically ill son, and Greg Kinnear as an artist who is gay.
This movie is all about conversations! A classic, written with some of the best dialogues. It is all about how we feel about similar situations differently as different individuals, and how we act and say differently. The movie talks about OCD, depression and anxiety, relationship issues, and loneliness. I literally cried in many instances while watching this masterpiece.
4. Reign over me (2007)
A man who lost his family in the September 11 attack on New York City runs into his old college roommate. Rekindling the friendship is the one thing that appears able to help the man recover from his grief. Starring Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle in the leads.
Let me say this out loud. I am a big Adam Sandler fan. He has been entertaining our sad days with his comedy movies for so long but for this one movie. He deserves an academy award, if nothing less. The film showed how losing your entire family in a traumatic accident can leave scars on your Life. The healing process is never easy after that, but if there are friends you can hold on to and you can re-live those cherished memories, it is just a lot easier to cope with. It is a beautiful story of an unusual friendship that will definitely make you look around for your good old friends.
5. Her (2013)
In a near-future Los Angeles, Theodore Twombly is a lonely, introverted, depressed man who works for a business that has professional writers compose letters. Theodore purchases an operating system upgrade that includes a virtual assistant with artificial intelligence designed to adapt and evolve. He decides that he wants the AI to have a feminine voice, and she names herself Samantha. Theodore is fascinated by her ability to learn and grow psychologically. Starring Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson ( the Voice assistant )
Very futuristic, but it seems as real as it can get. While we are surrounded by Siris and Alexas all around our homes and offices, this movie talks about the extent to which it can play with our heads. It sure is a depressing movie because the main character falls in love with a virtual assistant who is just a bot and not a human. And he isn’t able to comprehend the fact that she doesn’t exist in reality. Loneliness can sometimes make you reach out to technology for solutions. And in the coming years, it would be the other way around.
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