To the Bone is a drama film about a young woman named Ellen dealing with Anorexia nervosa. Anorexia is when someone obsesses with their weight and what they eat. The movie begins with Ellen returning to her stepmother's home after failing her 4th in-patient program. While Ellen lives with her stepmother, we see some of Ellen’s artwork when Ellen is doing sit-ups. Ellen is later admitted to another in-patient program. Susan, Ellen’s stepmother finds another doctor for Ellen. Dr. William Beckham is willing to admit Ellen, as Long as she participates in another in-patient. After this, it is made clear that Ellen is the protagonist of the film, and that the film is focusing on the conflict idea, person vs. Self. Ellen moves into the house with 6 other patients, 5, of which, are young women. Megan, one of the in-patients was pregnant. The last being a young man. Luke supports all the young women in the house. Luke eventually reveals to Ellen that he is a fan of Ellen’s artwork, and takes a special interest in her.
On the first night of Ellen’s welcome, Dr. Beckham tells Ellen that she is going to have a family therapy session. Just before Beckham leaves, Ellen tells him that her artwork was not intended to do what they did. We get a small piece of the puzzle of what happened with Ellen's artwork. We are introduced to Ellen's mother and her partner. Ellen’s father does not show up to the session telling the viewers how absent Ellen’s father is from her life. We learn that Ellen was living with her mother until she was abandoned. Her mother moved to Phoenix with her partner. Near the end of the session, we learn the most of the story of Ellen’s artwork and her “inspired fan.” Ellen had posted deep, and personal artwork that influenced a young girl that lead to her suicide.
Ellen continues to lose weight, despite her promises. Ellen eventually changes her name to Eli and becomes closer with Luke and the other in-patients. Eli becomes very close to Luke, and share a kiss. Luke admits his love or Eli, which causes her to panic and reject him from fear. Later that night, Eli finds one off the patients, Megan, in the bathroom bleeding. Megan had a miscarriage from purging, believing her baby was safe after her baby had reached the 12th week. This is the inciting incident that causes Eli’s downfall. Ellen immediately wanted to leave seeing no hope in recovering. Just before she leaves the house, Luke tells Eli’sthat his dancing career was over and that is knee injury was permanent. He needed something new to focus on. After he tells her this Eli leaves anyway.
Eli takes a bus all the way to Phoenix to live with her mother. That night Eli’s mother tells her how guilty she feels for her postpartum depression. Postpartum depression is when a mother suffers from severe depression after childbirth. She asks Eli if she can bottle feed her to help solve both of their issues. This part of the movie was heavily inspired by Lily Collins herself. Lily and her mother got a recommendation from their therapist to try bottle feeding to help with Lily’s eating disorder. This was uncomfortable for Lily and their mother and never tried the idea after one try. Much like Lily did, Eli feels uncomfortable with the idea, until her mother also told her that she accepts Eli choosing to die.
Eli goes for a walk in the night and passes out. She has a dream where she kisses Luke in a tree and has him show her her body and how sick she was. He then gives Eli a coal and tells her “Your courage is a small coal that you keep swallowing.” This wakes Eli from her dream. She feels motivated and happy to be alive. She returns to Santa Clarita and continues the in-patient program, which is then flowed by credits. This is really effective in the film because although the viewer would want some kind of clarity as to whether or not Eli gets better, it is best to leave the reader with the idea of hope.
To the Bone was heavily inspired by Dr. Richard Mackenzie, who helped several patients with eating disorders. Dr. Mackenzie helped the producer, Marti Noxon, who was a former patient of Mackenzie. Lily Collins (Ellen), and Marti Noxon both suffered from Anorexia. One of the characters in the movie, Tracy, suffered from Bulimia. Although she did not have a lot of screen time she was an important part of the depiction of people with eating disorders. Marti Noxon also suffered from Bulimia and is what inspired the character, Tracy.
One scene of Dialogue that I found powerful and real was when Ellen and her sister were relaxing and gazing at the city below them. Ellen tells her sister “I’ve got it under control. Nothing bads gonna happen,” to which, Ellen’s sister responded, as she pointed at the town.
“How many people do you think are down there? Like, two million? I bet a bunch of them who are about to die just said the exact same thing.”
In this scene, Ellen’s sister was being honest with her and trying to get Ellen to face facts. Hearing Ellen’s sister says that gave me a bigger perspective of the world. I think the creators of the film did a great job of connecting the viewers with the protagonist. In the moment of the scene, I felt like Ellen. I didn’t stop to think about other people.
In production design, Bonnie Curtis, Karina Miller, and Julie Lynn needed to show something with their production design, even though in the film Ellen doesn’t have a home with her own decor. They use production design in all the homes that Ellen have been in to give the audience some idea of what Ellen’s family is like. One quote that I believe represents Ellen as whole well is near the end of the movie. Ellen was having a therapy session with Dr. Beckham. She says to him, “I have issues. Whatever. Talking isn’t gonna help.” I want to point out the fact that in this scene Ellen was no longer wearing her oversized clothing. She was wearing a short sleeve shirt and was wearing her hair down. This is a small but important detail that the costume designers had to implement in the film.
PHOTO CREDIT
“Film.” Pinterest, Pinterest, 17 Nov. 2018, www.pinterest.com/mvschuster/film/.
On the first night of Ellen’s welcome, Dr. Beckham tells Ellen that she is going to have a family therapy session. Just before Beckham leaves, Ellen tells him that her artwork was not intended to do what they did. We get a small piece of the puzzle of what happened with Ellen's artwork. We are introduced to Ellen's mother and her partner. Ellen’s father does not show up to the session telling the viewers how absent Ellen’s father is from her life. We learn that Ellen was living with her mother until she was abandoned. Her mother moved to Phoenix with her partner. Near the end of the session, we learn the most of the story of Ellen’s artwork and her “inspired fan.” Ellen had posted deep, and personal artwork that influenced a young girl that lead to her suicide.
Ellen continues to lose weight, despite her promises. Ellen eventually changes her name to Eli and becomes closer with Luke and the other in-patients. Eli becomes very close to Luke, and share a kiss. Luke admits his love or Eli, which causes her to panic and reject him from fear. Later that night, Eli finds one off the patients, Megan, in the bathroom bleeding. Megan had a miscarriage from purging, believing her baby was safe after her baby had reached the 12th week. This is the inciting incident that causes Eli’s downfall. Ellen immediately wanted to leave seeing no hope in recovering. Just before she leaves the house, Luke tells Eli’sthat his dancing career was over and that is knee injury was permanent. He needed something new to focus on. After he tells her this Eli leaves anyway.
Eli takes a bus all the way to Phoenix to live with her mother. That night Eli’s mother tells her how guilty she feels for her postpartum depression. Postpartum depression is when a mother suffers from severe depression after childbirth. She asks Eli if she can bottle feed her to help solve both of their issues. This part of the movie was heavily inspired by Lily Collins herself. Lily and her mother got a recommendation from their therapist to try bottle feeding to help with Lily’s eating disorder. This was uncomfortable for Lily and their mother and never tried the idea after one try. Much like Lily did, Eli feels uncomfortable with the idea, until her mother also told her that she accepts Eli choosing to die.
Eli goes for a walk in the night and passes out. She has a dream where she kisses Luke in a tree and has him show her her body and how sick she was. He then gives Eli a coal and tells her “Your courage is a small coal that you keep swallowing.” This wakes Eli from her dream. She feels motivated and happy to be alive. She returns to Santa Clarita and continues the in-patient program, which is then flowed by credits. This is really effective in the film because although the viewer would want some kind of clarity as to whether or not Eli gets better, it is best to leave the reader with the idea of hope.
To the Bone was heavily inspired by Dr. Richard Mackenzie, who helped several patients with eating disorders. Dr. Mackenzie helped the producer, Marti Noxon, who was a former patient of Mackenzie. Lily Collins (Ellen), and Marti Noxon both suffered from Anorexia. One of the characters in the movie, Tracy, suffered from Bulimia. Although she did not have a lot of screen time she was an important part of the depiction of people with eating disorders. Marti Noxon also suffered from Bulimia and is what inspired the character, Tracy.
 |
| The scene of Dialogue that I Chose |
“How many people do you think are down there? Like, two million? I bet a bunch of them who are about to die just said the exact same thing.”
In this scene, Ellen’s sister was being honest with her and trying to get Ellen to face facts. Hearing Ellen’s sister says that gave me a bigger perspective of the world. I think the creators of the film did a great job of connecting the viewers with the protagonist. In the moment of the scene, I felt like Ellen. I didn’t stop to think about other people.
In production design, Bonnie Curtis, Karina Miller, and Julie Lynn needed to show something with their production design, even though in the film Ellen doesn’t have a home with her own decor. They use production design in all the homes that Ellen have been in to give the audience some idea of what Ellen’s family is like. One quote that I believe represents Ellen as whole well is near the end of the movie. Ellen was having a therapy session with Dr. Beckham. She says to him, “I have issues. Whatever. Talking isn’t gonna help.” I want to point out the fact that in this scene Ellen was no longer wearing her oversized clothing. She was wearing a short sleeve shirt and was wearing her hair down. This is a small but important detail that the costume designers had to implement in the film.
PHOTO CREDIT
“Film.” Pinterest, Pinterest, 17 Nov. 2018, www.pinterest.com/mvschuster/film/.
Comments
Post a Comment