Films involving Mental Illness

Mental Illness: Major Films no photo.

Title	To Live Again (1998) (TV Film)
Alternative/Original Title
Disability	Mental Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Country	USA
Length	90
Genre	Drama
Rating	3
Director	Steven Schachter
Cast	Bonnie Bedelia Brady Coleman Annabeth Gish
Notes	A young woman has been locked up by her mother 16 years. A neighbour at last complains and a court order is used to get the girl out of the house. She's in a terribly neglected state both mentally and in her appearance. Bonnie Bedelia plays the psychiatric nurse who comes out of retirement to look after her. She takes the woman home and treats her with T.L.C. (tender loving care) to try to bring her out of her shell. We learn that the woman's problems started with her having fits at high school. Her mother is convinced that she going the way of her own 'mad' sister. And she says every family has one such child. Under the nurse's care the woman begins to come out of her shell (and we know there's a beautiful woman under that dirt). But the mother wants her daughter back. For one thing she's been getting disability cheques for the past 16 years. It turns out that the mother started her daughter's problems by locking her up when she went out with a boy considered by her mother to be white trash. The mother kidnaps her daughter but when she gets her home the daughter rages and the mother calls 911. This lands the daughter in a hospital where the nurse cannot get access to her even though she is the legal guardian. Ahead lies a competency hearing which will decide the daughter's fate. One difficulty for the daughter is that she has been fed anti-psychotic drugs for 16 years which leave her fairly incompetent. The nurse makes contact with her telling her not to take the drugs. At the hearing it is revealed the daughter has post traumatic stress disorder resulting from being locked up for so long. And her condition is not dissimilar to that of prisoners of war. But off the drugs she passes the competency hearing and goes with the nurse. The film is not that bad. Bedelia (the wife in "Die Hard") is a good actress. There is a romance with the town Sheriff who brings the nurse out of her own seclusion which followed the death of her daughter in a drunk driving accident. But this is more melodrama than medical case study.

Back to Home Page