MovieChat Forums > They Look Like People (2016) Discussion > This and Taking Shelter both suggest (SP...

This and Taking Shelter both suggest (SPOILERS)

posted 8 years ago by TheManInOil
7 replies | jump to latest

...that mental illness can be overcome by an act of will, motivated by love for those close to the person suffering delusions.

As far as I know, there's no basis for this in reality. To suggest that a delusional person could get over it if only he wanted to enough or had the right people supporting him is just untrue. It also suggests that if someone doesn't overcome their illness that they have failed somehow.

It's a nice message for a story, but it doesn't speak to the truth about mental illness.

[–] mattmens1 8 years ago

I think you're absolutely right, however it made for good cinema. I think they wanted to portray how dangerously close to the edge of sanity Wyatt was. Instead of seeing him completely lose it and kill his friend, he was able to overcome his delusional mind just for that moment. I don't think we are meant to think he is cured now, far from it. What happened with Mara is also debatable, considering he told Christian her head was "split open." It may not have been an accurate portrayal of mental illness, but it was unique and disturbing. Personally I enjoyed the film though and liked the positive ending as I have seen many movies that don't go that route.

[–] BewareOfTheAvalanche 8 years ago

As far as I understand people with mental illness alternate between phases, just because Wyatt had a moment of sobriety, doesn't mean he overcame his problems rather than simply accepted having them.

Curtis from Take Shelter didn't overcome it because he was not ill, we can see in the film that what he was seeing was the future and not mere hallucinations.

[–] dylanfan23-345-583076 8 years ago

My interpretation of the ending was not that Wyatt was now "fixed" because of his friend's love for him, but he was able to finally see there was something wrong with him and he needed to get help. A breakthrough, but not a cure. That's just how I saw it. Others could easily see it as Wyatt having recovered.

You're right, this has been portrayed too often in movies/TV. It makes those of us who suffer from mental illness feel like maybe we just aren't trying hard enough.

[–] kay_rock 8 years ago

I saw it the same way dylanfan did.

Even more than that, the true revelation was Christian's. He finally had to face how truly ill his friend was, and was choosing to stay with him and help him.

Movies are IQ tests; the IMDB boards are how people broadcast their score.

[–] MarshallStax 8 years ago

Agreed; he knew he was sick (as he had admitted earlier in the film several times) but was finally able to overcome acting on his delusions, which signals the intent to overcome them, not the actual end of the illness.

All Art is pretense.

[–] writinman2004 8 years ago

The main characters in both movies didn't overcome anything.

[–] gryg-58 8 years ago

I don't think that this movie implied that Wyatt was cured at the end. He was still completely insane and dangerous as hell. I like very much that they end a story in that moment because characters are in the middle of something which is not finished. Everything can happen at this point. I think that Wyatt can kill Christian just a couple minutes later. He needs serious treatment! I'm not nowhere near an expert on psychotic episodes but symptoms of mental illness are not black and white in occurance. He might be just stepping into full blown episode, stilll able to differentiate between reality and fiction in particular moments and with adequate conditions.