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Good story, Not enough for a whole film

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Maya Forbes skillfully directs a loving tail about a man's frail grip with his emotions, and with his sanity. Even looser is his connection with his daughters and wife. Mark Ruffalo's character is attempting to reign in more things than an octopi cowboy while drinking enough to whet Nick Nolte's appetite. His character makes me think that Adam Sandler and Hunter S. Thompson hopped in the Brundle teleportation machines to create a fragile but dominating human embodiment of a flailing bee. Or High Fidelity occurring inside your hippocampus set to a groovy soundtrack. The only issue I had with the film was the director's attempt at painting too many biographies in such a short screen time. I related most with Ruffalo's character (being manic depressive myself), and found it very difficult to do this when the true centerpiece of the film rests in the children (who Ruffalo and Saldana also focus on, with an occasional squint at each other for the first half of the film). All in all, a fun movie that doesn't demand much of your time. It's a delicate character study of a brilliant but fragile man's relationship with his initially frightened peers.

I can't say enough good things about this movie. The dialogue and situations are so real. Made even more real by the amazing acting jobs, particularly Mark Ruffalo and Imogene Wolodarsky. This feels like a real family and is indeed based on the writer/directors life. Although the movie is based a story that is in many ways very sad, there is also many moments of laughter and joy for this family. So although you often feel sadness for the characters, it is still a joy to watch. I highly recommend this movie. After finishing this movie I had to immediately look it up to see if it was based on a real story because watching it, you just know it has to be. If you have grown up in a family that had to struggle in any way, you will relate to and find joy in this movie.

Writer/director Maya Forbes obviously feels quite passionately about the subject of manic depression, and I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the depiction of it in "Infinitely Polar Bear" is based on some personal experience. But the film she's made misses its marks by a wide margin, turning manic depression into something little more serious than a set of wacky eccentricities that with the right frame of mind can make a parent even more fun than he/she might otherwise be. Mark Ruffalo plays the parent struggling with mental illness, caring for his two daughters while his wife and their mother relocates temporarily from Boston to New York to go to school. That a mother would leave her daughters with a mentally unbalanced father in the first place, and further that she would continue to leave them with him after she finds out things like he leaves in the middle of the night and doesn't come home until morning, is treated by the film as no big deal. And it's not a big deal, as the movie would have it, since in this film mental illness just means that one has to deal with a kooky and sometimes embarrassing father. I have direct experience with mental illness, and this film's sugar coating of it is not only unrealistic but is downright irresponsible.Mark Ruffalo hams it up to the high heavens. He's a much better actor than one would ever be able to glean from his performance in this film. Zoe Saldana plays the mother and does OK with a not terribly interesting character, but as written she doesn't make any sense, so there's only so much Saldana could do with the character anyway.Grade: C

Review: This is an extremely sweet movie with some great performances from some top actors. Mark Ruffalo, (Cam Stuart) plays a manic depressive father who loves his family very much but his wife Maggie Stuart (Zoe Saldana) finds it hard to deal with his various moods, which cause the family distress. Cam then has a psychotic breakdown, which causes him to be fired from his job and hospitalised for a while, and when he's released, he lives by himself, which takes him away from his loved ones. Maggie struggles to make ends meet and she finally decides to further her education in New York, while Cam looks after his two young girls. While Cam is struggling through there normal, day to day routine whilst dealing with his bipolar disease, Maggie visits the family household every weekend to make sure things are running smoothly. Cam really wants to get the family back together, once Maggie has finished her 18 months training but she soon realises that there are more opportunities in New York. As Cam will not be able to tackle his disease and live in the fast paced city, he decides to stay in Boston and Maggie soon comes to the conclusion that it wouldn't be fair to take kids with her, so they work out a plan which will suit everyone. Its definitely a tear-jerker with emotional scenes throughout and I'm sure a lot of people would be able to relate to the families distressing situation. The chemistry between Saldana and Ruffalo is very realistic and the little girls, Amelia (Imogene Wolodarsky) and Faith (Ashley Aufderheide), are great. Its definitely an emotional drama about a family who make the most out of what they have but if your expecting twists and turns, this is definitely not the movie for you. Enjoyable!Round-Up: Although this movie didn't make its money back at the box office, it's definitely worth a watch. Mark Ruffalo, 48, was brilliant as the doting father, alongside Zoe Saldana, 37, who has starred in huge movies like Avatar, Guardians of the Galaxy, Star Trek and Pirates of the Caribbean. She is due to play Nina Simone in the biopic, Nina and with another Star Trek, Guardians of the Galaxy and Avatar in the pipeline, she has definitely made the right choices in her successful career. Anyway, this is the first movie directed by Maya Forbes but she wrote 12 episodes of the Larry Sanders Show, the Rocker, Monsters vs. Aliens, Diary of a Wimpy Kid and an episode for the People v. O.J. Simpson. For her first project, she done a great job by getting some top actors in this well written drama and it'll be good to see what type of movie she will direct next.Budget: $6.7million Worldwide Gross: $1.8millionI recommend this movie to people who are into their drama/romance/comedies starring Mark Ruffalo, Zoe Saldana, Imogene Wolodarsky and Ashley Aufderheide. 6/10