Review of Thin (2006) by Karia Q — 08 Aug 2012

This is a powerful, depressing documentary about a live-in rehabilitation facility which treats women with eating disorders using a mixture of talk and art therapy, close monitoring of their meals, surprise searches of their rooms, and Orwellian control over their social lives. Several women are followed closely throughout their treatment and their conditions are extremely sad as, for example, whey one sees a double chin where there simply is none. But just as disturbing for me was the protrayal of the doctors and staff treating the patients. In one instance, a patient, Shelly, is accused by her doctor of having an uneaten veggie burger discovered in her room, forbidden contraband in a world where no purses, bags or packages in which to conceal your prescribed meals are allowed in the cafeteria. She vigorously denies possessing the uneaten food but we are then shown a meeting of the staff treating her in which the incident is cited to justify the application of the label sneaky to her and she is singled out for stepped up monitoring. Later, when it is revealed that the burger was discovered in a common bathroom and had belonged to another patient, Shelly has to drag an apology out of her doctor who appears to continue to view her with distrust anyways. In addition to the patients and their doctors there are also some fasicnating and even harrowing scenes involving the patientsâ(TM) families. The film doesnâ(TM)t get very deeply into the causes of the disorders being treated but focuses its attention almost exclusively on the treatment including the lives they lead in the facility, their meals and daily weigh-ins, the bonds formed and broken between the patients, and the consequences of their inadequate health insurance sometimes forces patients to leave before they or their doctors think they are ready.

This is a stark look at eating disorders, their consequences, and their treatment with no judgments or preaching just the truth, twenty four frames per second. It was brave of the subjects of this documentary to tell their stories and the result is a fascinating if disturbingly sad documentary.