Review of Thin (2006) by Eric F — 29 Jul 2008

I think it's safe to say that all of us know that anorexia is a major problem amongst people in our country, especially young females. And it's even easier to point the fingers at the media and advertisement campaigns as a cause for these distorted self-images. So what more could a documentary have to say? Plenty. The joy of "Thin" is that it doesn't attempt to reach a conclusion on the causes of anorexia or visit the lives of several people who "get better" - it's as raw and voyeur as you can possibly get. This film isn't about the ever-growing issue of anorexia in the United States... it's just about a handful of women struggling with a seemingly unconquerable disease.

Director Lauren Greenfield shot "Thin" in an in-patient facility in South Florida. She has chosen her subjects wisely - they all have vibrant personalities, and they're all extremely different. Polly is the lovable charismatic leader of the group and also the one that seems to be making the most effort to get better... however, we still see her struggles as she is in tears trying to eat a cupcake. Brittany, a 15-year-old, proves to be far older emotionally as she's already struggled with anorexia for years. Her mother knew she had a problem, but didn't help her because she was anorexic herself. Shelly is a bulimic girl born in a broken home. She's a twin who can only compare herself to her sister, and at times she even lashes out at her as if her twin was a mirror. The last of the main focuses of the film is Alisa, a mother of two, who seems to be perfectly okay in every way until we see what's under the layers of clothes at the end of the film.

As a film, "Thin" can be a little bit underwhelming because there's really no ending. The film comes to no conclusions about anything and it doesn't wrap up the lives of any of our subjects... we don't get the sense that anyone in the movie has since healed since the filming of this movie. However, that's what made it so powerful. There's not many movie endings as gripping as the still faces of these struggling women completely let loose into the world. Brittany is perhaps the most heartbreaking, as her still picture came off as the largest cry for help you've ever seen, even in it's motionless silence. It's heartbreaking to know that these people are still out there, and they're not being helped. They're literally starving themselves to death.

This film makes more of a negative statement on the health care of our country than it does anorexia. Near the end of the film, where you'd assume everyone is about to get better, we discover that people have to be kicked out of the facility prematurely due to insurance issues. In one of the more heart breaking moments of the film, Polly's mother pleads with the nurses at the hospital to let her daughter stay there - saying they'll never know what it's like to have a daughter in that situation. Although it didn't seem to be part of the director's intent, the film certainly made the hospital staff out as the enemies.

There were a few moments in the film where I wasn't fully satisfied, as I felt that people were almost "playing" to the camera. For instance, when two of the girls go to get a tattoo - I was wondering why they trusted the filmmaker to not show the footage to the hospital staff. Later on in the film, where a few of the women purge on camera, I also felt as if it was a "show" more than voyeurism. I would think that doing that, even if it's familiar territory to you, would still be almost humiliating and something you'd want to do in private. For a documentary filmmaker this has obviously got to be one of the hardest things to pull off... and although it worked most of the time, some of those little scenes bothered me.

I've met plenty of people like the characters of this film - in fact I once dated a girl exactly like Brittany. And although the world of anorexia wasn't exactly new to me... some of the scenes in this movie were still absolutely shocking. I almost felt like throwing up myself when Shelly explained how she would use the tube in her stomach to suck out food - she would stick a syringe in, and suck out what she's consumed straight from her stomach. These characters are all very tortured people, but they're all real people. We see a lot of ourselves in all of them. And although they're presented as outcasts in the film, it's stunning to see just how much you just want to cry right along with them. While this isn't a perfect film, it is one of the most honest and true-to-life documentaries you'll ever see.