By This trailer presents somewhat of a dilemma for me. On the one hand, I love Mark Ruffalo and Zoe Saldana, but on the other, I hate the thriving subgenre that is ‘feel good movies’ about mental illness. I mean movies from Silver Linings Playbook to Little Miss Sunshine, I find them coated with an insufferable dishonesty, turning mental illness into a cheap trick to add unearned gravitas to a formulaic story. Infinitely Polar Bear is advertising itself as a perfect entry into this canon: Mark Ruffalo is bipolar and manic depressive, but he has to learn to take care of his children as a single parent!
But trailers is trailers is trailers, and maybe Infinitely Polar Bear is an honest tale of what it’s like for a family to struggle with bipolar disorder and manic depression. After all, it’s a supposedly autobiographical film from Maya Forbes, about her own childhood experiences. I’d like to hope so, because lord knows we need more of those. But as it stands, as someone battling their own mental illnesses each and every day, this trailer raises every single one of my red flags.
I’ll still see it, though. I saw Begin Again and Now You See Me, so apparently I’ll watch Mark Ruffalo in anything.
[via Yahoo]