Review of Brain on Fire (2017) by Mike L — 13 Oct 2018

I don't know if Chloe has incurred the wrath of the Hollywood-industrial complex or if the entertainment media has simply descended so far into a rabbit hole of self-righteous cynicism that they have forgotten the purpose of story-telling in the first place. The Hollywood media seems to have been taken over by the kind for people who go to a magic show intent on finding wires and the not-quite-perfect Indian shuffle rather than assessing the overall performance and its effect. You know movies don't have to be on a scale of 0 or 10, but all the numbers in between seem to have gone missing in the modern critic's world.

In Brain on Fire, we see a straight-forward and fairly accurate portrayal of psychosis induced by encephalitis,and the attendant uncertainty which can destroy lives associated with it. I found it compelling and wrought with emotional consequences. It does come off as a high-budget after-school special, but you know there's really nothing wrong with that. For this particular memoir, that format works well because there is an entropic reality about the whole situation that is well-reflected in the style of this film.

Thematically, the movie does not try to pretend it is doing anything other than making a point - and does so in a way that still has considerable emotional punch. The moral of the story is woven through the portrayal of the very real struggle induced by a difficult diagnosis - for everybody involved. Anybody whose life has been touched by shizophrenia and other psychoses will recognize the world presented in this film.

As for the critics who tell us - in so many words - that this film is trite melodrama, perhaps it is time to consider a career change. This film is a simple story about a curative breakthrough that is helping a lot of people. And if all you can do is scoff at that sort of message, maybe you check your own physiology - for you have no heart.