flblueeyedboy
All her life, Renee Yohe was a dreamer. Until life took away her dreams. Caught up in the mid-Florida drug world, she reconnects with her friends whom she left two years ago, asking for help to overcome her struggles. What she doesn't know is that her story would provide hope for people like her around the world.This film is a perfect depiction of what really goes down, and how rehab really goes. Throughout her entire career, Kat Dennings (Renee) has always played sarcastic, hilarious characters. And one of the truly serious roles in her career, she nails. I'm surprised she wasn't given at least a nod from the Academy for Best Actress.Everybody's performances to couple with hers give the whole movie a sense of solid tangibility, as a BOATS (Based On A True Story) feature should. To think that one woman, whose story we've heard a million times, would inspire a non-profit organization that shares the same name as the movie, motivating depressed, addicted, and even suicidal young adults to never give up, because Renee didn't.This movie should have won awards across the board, but even though it didn't, it shows that anything is possible when you ask for help. A definite must-see
tieman64
A weak but well-meaning film by director Nathan Frankowski, "To Write Love on Her Arms" stars Kat Dennings as Renne Yohe, a young woman who is saved from addiction, self-harm, suicide and depression by friends and strangers. The film is based on several real-life events. These events would lead to the formation of an American non-profit organisation which specialises in assisting those suffering from addictions and depression.When it adopts a tone of social-realism, "To Write Love on Her Arms" is a fine drama. The film's touching tale, however, is derailed by unnecessary flashbacks, jarring fantasy sequences and a plot which is less interested in Renne than the non-profit organisation formed in response to her plight. Co-starring Rupert Friend and Chad Murray.6/10 – Better films about suicide and self-harm: "Night Mother", Louis Malle's "The Fire Within", "Harold and Maude", "The Bridge", "The Seventh Continent", "Ordinary People", "Girl Interrupted", "A Taste of Cherry", "Imaginary Heroes" and "Mouchette".
in1984
2 of 10. This is the worst kind of war on drugs propaganda and film. It feels like you're watching something quickly scrambled together to show on TV with the intent of persuading young people that drugs are bad, only used by "messed up" people, and you can only be good again by rehabbing with baby-Jesus.Leading the way is Kat Dennings, who is the poster actress for grunge/goth/outsider posers. Add to that a collection of desperate actors and actresses hoping for a break or a paycheck and you get nothing worth watching other than the irony of their story not telling what they try to force it to tell via one last end-of-film gimmick.The only thing I'll be writing love to after watching this is the programmer who made increased playback speeds possible so I could get this film over without sacrificing too much of my life.
james-325-474821
Produced in 2012, this film has traveled the film festival circuit for far too long without having a proper mainstream release.The story's arc is revealed to us through the mind of the main character through an imaginative use of animated visuals. The audience is allowed to travel in and out of the mind of the main character's coping mechanisms through a very clever and effective assortment of visual and musical story devices. When these mechanisms begin to fail, these conventions carry through in an appropriately dynamic fashion.Rupert Friend delivers a stunning performance in his supporting role, and this film will be a pleasant surprise to those who know this actor from the 'Homeland' series.The film has some roughness around the edges, and at times feels like a very expensive (and slightly didactic) after-school special. But those moments are fleeting, and are contrasted with some very harsh visuals and story progression that are anything but didactic.We're presented with a brutally honest story that is at times both beautiful and horrifying in its presentation of characters that come full circle in the end.
AD
