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This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

I found this to be a very interesting movie on the different dynamics of families around us. Everyone is different, and I did not in any way, shape or form find anything disagreeable about the family. Grief takes on different meanings to everyone, and their method of grieving just happens to be doing what they do best- film making. While I didn't see this as a video that would stop any would-be suicides, I did see it as a video that enlightens people into the world of depression and suicide that aren't feeling depressed. More than informative, though, I found this to be entertaining in a deep way- deep in the way that you'd expect the parents of the teen to be. I now can say definitively that I will be better equipped to deal with depression if it ever pops up in the lives of my children or anyone around me, and I have this movie to thank. This story isn't one I'll soon forget.This is somewhat of a tangent, but I did find myself wondering how incredibly loaded the father's side of the family was. . .

Heart wrenching film very well done by parents who have lived through THE WORST thing that could happen From the surface this child could not have had a better life. Well off, attentive parents, and had all the advantages. Yet he could not get past the darkness inside him. So chilling that he manifested these behaviors at such an early age.To the commentator who was critical of the psychiatrist....you cant assume all bi-polar people have the same experience. Im glad you know some who have managed to lead normal lives and respond to medication and therapy. but I personally know of two bipolar people, early 30s, both highly educated, who are unable to function as independent adults because of bipolar disorder. They have both had solid access to medical attention. I think sometimes the disorder is just too heavy. I think also there are personality traits outside the bipolar disorder that are specific to some individuals which exaggerate or enhance the challenges.

Having just watched "Boy Interrupted" I am left with a deep ache in my heart. What a profoundly moving story of a life which ended way too soon. My heart goes out to Evan Scott Perry's loved ones as well as to all the friends and families of those who have lost someone special.The movie was painful to watch, yet calmly compelling and well crafted. The care taken to create this professional, elegant piece is further testament to the absolute love and commitment his family had to Evan. I hope the making of this film eulogy has aided the family in their grieving process.Now I feel compelled to address some issues that arose while watching the film. The doctor who treated Evan seems a bit peculiar and I have some legitimate concerns over his treatment. Dr. Ladd Spiegel treated Evan for 10 years. When interviewed, Dr. Spiegel proclaims "I never knew Evan very well." Upon reviewing his notes, the doctor does not have many positive or sensitive things to say about Evan, referring to him as "the scariest kid I've ever seen in my life."If being "scary"was one of Evan's childhood characteristics, it pales in comparison to his attributes. Throughout the film we are treated to charming video footage of Evan. I feel I got to know him a little and came to like him a lot. He was an exceptional child and was growing into an articulate,successful young man.As Dana Perry narrates her son's life, we learn that just months before Evan's suicide he was weaned from the prescription he had been on since childhood. The doctor agrees to a trial of 4-6 weeks to wean the boy from 1200 mg of Lithium. This is an exceptionally short time period for tapering off a strong mood stabilizer. These are powerful drugs which affect the chemistry of the body and brain. Pharmaceutical companies claim these drugs cannot be addictive hence do not cause withdrawal symptoms, yet they warn to taper off very slowly under close physician supervision.Dr. Spiegel's assertion that Evan was seemingly cured of bipolar disorder upon his rapid lowering of the lithium dose contradicts everything else the doctor states about Evan's condition. This suicidal boy who was once "the scariest kid I've ever seen" suddenly "seemed fine." Then the doctor acts shocked and surprised at how quickly Evan takes his life after quitting the medication. Finally Dr. Spielgel fires his most nasty defense. He defines bipolar disorder as "our cancer" in psychiatry.My own doctor prescribed a small dose of Zoloft for mild depression for about 2 years. Last year, with my doctor's approval I decided to taper off the drug. At the time I felt stable and happy and saw no reason to continue taking it. The result: cried like a baby for two weeks and hardly made it to work. Though I have never been suicidal, I felt hopeless and empty for the next 2 months. I cannot imagine the extent of symptoms had I taken the drug in my formative years and my body and mind had literally developed while taking it.Most likely I should have seen a therapist during my transition off Zoloft. My M.D. did not even suggest it. Tragically, the doctors we trust to help our loved ones and ourselves with mental health issues are sometimes lacking. We have seen several celebrity deaths of late that might have been avoided had doctors been engaged in monitoring their clients' drug intake.I'm not a medical practitioner and don't claim to know the correct approach to treating bipolar disorder. I do know someone who lives with the condition. He manages a healthy life through psychotherapy, medication and nutrition. Not all persons afflicted with the disorder are so fortunate.However, bipolar disorder is not a cancer. That kind of thinking is fatalistic. People living with BPD need doctors who are optimistic, attentive, extremely cautious and devoted to healing. Perhaps the "cancer" in this situation was the incompetence of a doctor who viewed the disorder as a fatal disease rather than a treatable condition.There is no sense wondering how things might have played out differently for Evan Scott Perry. Brightly, his life was documented, thanks to his loving parents, and his memory will live on to remind us how precious life is.

"To be or not to be, that is the question"This is one line from literature most everyone has heard but, because it is such a commonplace line, most people have not actually thought about the meaning behind the line.It's about a guy considering suicide.While the suicide contemplation scene from Hamlet may be dramatic gold for an actor, what do you do with someone who says numerous times, in real life, that they are going to kill themselves? What do you do if that person is your five year old son?That is the particular dilemma facing the Perry family in the fascinating documentary Boy Interrupted because they had a child who began suicidal ideation at age five and continued until he was 15 when he actually killed himself by jumping out of a window in his New York apartment building.Now, I have not given away anything important here, we learn all this before the first reel change and the entire rest of the film is made up of massive amounts of home video, photographs, vacation film etc. We literally follow Evan Perry from the day he was born (his birth was videotaped) to some video of him in a restaurant only a couple of days before his suicide.It's an extraordinary record of a life. Evan's parents were filmmakers so they had the talent, the equipment and the inclination to record Evan's life even when it must have been fairly unbearable to do so.Evan's mother (also the film's director), Dana Perry actually says she began filming her son's morbid moments for no other reason than she didn't think anyone would believe her if she told them that the seemingly cheerful young Evan was obsessed by death and suicide, because that is not what you expect to hear from kindergärtners.Boy Interrupted also contains numerous post-suicide interviews with family, friends, various doctors and counselors who all knew Evan and while they are all very saddened by his untimely death, none of them seemed particularly surprised that it happened.When Evan's psychiatrist describes him as "the scariest kid I have ever met", that should make you sit up and take notice. And that is what makes Boy Interrupted so gripping, intense and ultimately so heartbreaking – people did take notice.Boy Interrupted is not a story about a boy ignored. From early on Evan's parents sent him to doctors, got him analyzed, committed him to asylums if needed; at one point, while at a Connecticut school called Wellspring, Evan actually begins to mellow out and grow up a bit.Evan is diagnosed a Bipolar II (Depressive) with suicidal ideation, but starting with Prozac, moving on to Depakote (I take that myself) and finally onto lithium, Evan's parents seemed willing to do everything medically or therapeutically indicated to help their son. I don't even want to contemplate what their medical bills were like.But the psychiatric treatment of Evan was not a case of too little, too late, in fact, there is nobody in the film who ever says they wished that they had done anything differently. They all did everything they could do, did it properly and it still didn't stop Evan from killing himself.It's important to remember, doctors are not miracle workers. Evan's psychiatrist makes the analogy that Bipolar Depression is the psychiatric equivalent of various cancers; you can treat it for a while and some people will go into remission, some will not, but ultimately you have to stay on top of it at all times or it will kill you.Unfortunately, Evan Perry couldn't see that and appeared to just get tired of dealing with his disease. So, on one ordinary night in October 2005, he jumped out the window of his bedroom falling to his death into the trash filled alley below. An ignominious end to such a handsome, intelligent and talented youth.Despite the very sad theme, I didn't find myself moved to tears all that much during the film. This is because the director Dana Perry presents the story in a very matter of fact way. I don't envy her task of having had to sort through all the accumulated footage and then shape this recorded video into some kind of narrative.Having made films myself, I know you have to be brutal in the editing room and cut out everything that doesn't contribute to the points you are tying to make. That can be difficult for any director, but when the subject matter is your own son? That is not a job I would wish on my worst enemy.Tell a lie, I did cry at one point and that was when they interviewed some of Evan's schoolmates who are all now young men in their late teens. Dropping all teenage swagger and pretense, they speak more openly and honestly about their lost friend than most teenagers would ever do in private, let alone admit on camera. Seeing the real hurt they feel when Evan said in his suicide note that he had "no friends" was heartbreaking.Boy Interrupted is a heart felt and honest account of one family going through one of the hardest things any parent should ever have to go through and they have chosen to make their story public. Despite the fact their son did kill himself in spite of all the support he had, I did not get a sense of futility from watching Boy Interrupted.What I did get was that you should take every threat of suicide seriously, especially if it comes from a teen.Finally, it was one of Evan's final wishes to be totally forgotten, well Evan; this just proves you can't always get what you want, either in life or death. Too bad you're not still around to appreciate that grand joke on us all.