rainbowkeeper
I stumbled across this on the Lifetime Movie Network, and was blown away to finally see an unglamorous, starkly accurate portrayal of someone with schizophrenia. Kudos to Diana Ross, that can't possibly be an easy performance!!! Being bi-polar, I've been in and out of mental wards as a patient, seeing other patients with schizophrenia. This is the first time I've ever seen a movie or television show that captures the frightening reality without making it seem like a mere eccentricity. Now, if someone would just make a decent movie about being bi-polar, so I could point to it to help people understand what I go through.
stevelaughton@hotmail.com
Having just retired from working in a forensic psychiatric facility, I can attest that the performance I saw last evening on the Lifetime Movie Network, Out Of Darkness, is about as real as it gets. Most patients are very much aware of their illness and very aware of their treatment and the drugs they take for this illness - Paranoid Schizophrenia. Their auditory and visual hallucinations are truly real to them and control their everyday life. Clozoril, which is the drug Paulie took to experience normality, is the miracle drug used in the battle against this mental condition when other drugs fail. Although very effective, it has many, many adverse side affects.Diana Ross should definitely have been given an Emmy award, at the very least, for her portrayal of an individual stricken with this disease. She played a Paranoid-Schizo to a tee. I don't know how I missed seeing this movie all these years. A truly remarkable performance from an individual who is a multi-faceted entertainer. A singer/actress who has had to fight her own demons and I'm sure drew on those experiences to portray Paulie Cooper. Does anyone know if this movie was in part based on a true story?
rlmac
this film is really about longterm illness, or "loss of life" and the devastation it causes. the character was a brilliant, vivacious young woman. when she was born the doctor said this child has been "touched by god" because she was so beautiful. noone was sharper, nobody was quicker than Paulie. she was going to be a doctor, in her 3rd year of medical school. and then she got schitzophrenia. 18 years later she wakes up. shes 43, not 25 any more. shes lost 18 YEARS of her life. her life doesnt exist anymore. - her sister is a middle aged woman, who resents her for the way shes behaved, her mother is resigned to the fact her daughter is mentally ill. and she has a daughter she doesnt know, whom shes never known. the story is heartbreaking. Diana Ross is convincing, and the script is accurate. it may not be the best film about schitzophrenia, but as a view of the consequences, and the effects, it is well worth watching.
john-637
Diana gives a wonderful performance in this very important work. Before I saw this, I hadn't thought much about mental illnesses - I found her portrait to be vivid and honest. This is a difficult subject matter, and I thank Diana for having the courage to do this disturbing work.
AD
