godoyjrb It's nothing more than an apology do PROZAC; clearly a menchandising. I had severe depression and this of the so called anti-depressives never did any good for me, they don't help. AAt the 80ths a massive commercial campign in all medias tried people to believe it was a miracle, but it was only a big-pharma move to make money.About the character is mostly annoying than sick.

WakenPayne Prozac Nation for those who don't know was a collection of memoirs by Elizabeth Wurtzel about her time being depressed. I have never read the book but I did want to see this movie because I like both Christina Ricci and Emily Perkins as actresses. So I think that it is pretty good but it does have a lot of problems.The plot is that when Elizabeth goes to Harvard she starts to live the wild life while trying to put together articles, some even for Rolling Stone Magazine. Soon life gradually spins out of control, the more time that passes the faster her life goes out of control. Soon she becomes depressed and mean-spirited to other people (sometimes out of complete nowhere).The acting of this movie is actually pretty good. I have already said I like Christina Ricci and Emily Perkins as actresses but it's everyone who puts in stellar performances. This is easily the best element of the film.Another thing I liked was the ending... That might make me sound as if I didn't like the movie but I really liked the ending. It doesn't give itself Hollywood clichés such as some guardian angel figure telling Elizabeth how to snap out of her depression... It even flat out says that.If I am going to go into complaints it would have to be the way Elizabeth goes through some of her depression. Some of the times when she becomes mean spirited, sometimes it's justified a little bit to make me say "Yes, even though I don't agree with what she's doing I can at least understand it" while others she almost snaps out of nowhere.So I really liked this movie. There were some problems with the movie (The biggest being how Elizabeth acts sometimes) but it actually is a pretty solid film. If you are a fan of Christina Ricci or if you like seeing films about depression then I think this film does bring some good acting and none of this guardian angel stuff Hollywood throws at you then I'd say pick this one up.

robert-temple-1 This is an extremely harrowing, intensely dramatic film, based on the autobiographical book by Elizabeth Wurtzel, published in 1994 and which was an international bestseller. The film contains two spectacularly brilliant lead performances, one by the 20 year-old Christina Ricci as Elizabeth Wurtzel, and the other by Jessica Lange as her mother. The intensity of the emotional outbursts emanating from both of them during the course of this story is such that it is like watching atomic bombs explode up close, and you worry about the radiation poisoning and collateral damage. You look around the room to see if the furniture is still there or has been disintegrated. If it is still there, you can't be sure it will be for long. Ricci is 33 now and has already made 64 films, nearly two for every year of her life, but considering she started at nine, that is 2.66 films for every year of her active career so far. She is spreading as fast as Japanese knotweed, and is as ineradicable. Is there anyone who has not been amazed at her by now? But, not to be outdone, Jessica Lange does the most hysterical telephone screaming scene in the history of the cinema in this film, and I wonder how many phones she smashed, considering that one died for each take. Really, Ricci and Lange are in fierce competition in this film for who can be the most hysterical. Ricci wins, but then her character is the really crazy one, and Lange's is only partly crazy. The character of Elizabeth is totally convincing, and alas for those of us who have had experience of genuinely crazy people at close quarters. I have never known a girl who 'had it as bad as' Elizabeth, but I have known less acute cases with similar symptoms. Central to her condition is a manic narcissism, such that other people only exist as penumbras who are more or less in focus depending upon whether they are useful or obstructive to the narcissist's chosen path and aims (which may either be insane or may possess a kind of insane logic to them, so that it is only the premises which are insane). There is no doubt that spoilt brats are excellent recruits to narcissism, and one of the revealing scenes in this film is where Lange confesses to Ricci that after her husband (Ricci's father) abandoned them, she first 'lost it' but then refocused on Ricci and her daughter 'became everything to me'. Those parents who try to fulfill their own emotional needs and compensate for their own inadequacies by using their children as tools can indeed create monsters. It is just such boys from affluent families who, as spoilt brats converted into total narcissism, go and shoot their schoolmates in all those American school shootings. And by the way, such spoilt brats have killed far more people than the 'Boston bombers', but because those are foreigners, they can become a national issue, whereas the home-grown spoilt brats who shoot their schoolmates are quickly forgotten because they are far too embarrassingly 'boys next door' and 'one of us'. Well, Elizabeth Wurtzel was also 'one of us' who went completely crazy, but somehow she seems to have pulled herself out of the depths of madness and described her story in the most amazing way. It really is an incredible feat, what she has done, and an equally incredible film has been made of it. The tragedy of it all is that the psychiatric care seems to have been entirely useless (the psychiatrist played by Anne Heche barely speaks and just stares at Ricci), and the only thing which was able to bring Wurtzel under control was the drug Prozac. The film informs us that in 2000, 300 million prescriptions for Prozac and other similar tranquilizer drugs were dispensed in America, which is more than one per head of population. That certainly is a good ad for Big Pharma. But it is not a good ad for Americans. Are they really all as crazy as that suggests? And have they all been reduced to drugged zombies who are sleep-walking through life? What does this say about the quality of democratic participation? If you are drugged up to the eyeballs, are you really fit to enter a polling booth? Another disturbing revelation this year, 2013, concerns the new psychiatric diagnostic clinicians' manual known as DSM-5. According to a television report on that, the new manual circulated to all psychiatrists in America vastly expands the categories of psychosis. According to the new criteria, a person is allowed two weeks of grieving time after the death of a spouse or other close loved one, and if after that extreme grief continues, the person is considered to be psychiatrically ill and could in theory, I suppose, be institutionalized. At least everybody now knows how to ration their grief, since if you extend it to 15 days you may risk being taken away by the men in white coats and put into a straight jacket, as 15 days of grief is more than your permitted quota. But of course America is still 'a free country', and hence everyone is perfectly free to grieve for 14 days without penalty. Isn't that kind of the authorities, to allow 14 days of free grief before they start charging for institutionalization? That's what is called a merciful society. After all, there may be societies elsewhere in the world where only 13 days is permitted, and that would be very Un-American, thus proving that foreigners do not understand democracy. And also, according to the television report, 25% of the American population are now classified as mentally ill, and 20% are on psychoactive drugs. Well, that is what the TV report said. It also said that 69% of the people who drew up the DSM-5 have financial links with drug companies. Clearly no conflict of interest there!

Simon Davis OK, depression is a difficult subject to portray in a movie. They usually manifest in late teens. Childhood trauma, for instance parental breakups are a big factor. The onset of depression can often be brought on by substance abuse. Self destructive behavior and self neglect are the trademarks. The incredible mood swings. The helplessness. The dysfunctional relationships. The frustration and desperation of carers and friends as they are hurt over and over again. This movie hits all the bases. The backdrop of Harvard provides a balance to the difficult context, if a little unrealistic. Christina Ricci does a great job. There is a strong supporting cast. For anyone who suffers or anyone who has a friend who suffers this movie could help. But then again, it might activate some demons that you don't need to face right now. Be careful. Simon