To the Bone – Review

Ellen, our protagonist, is a young anorexic who has already been to four rehabilitation facilities and whose stepmother at this point desperate. Her fifth attempt is at a Los Angeles community called “Threshold”, directed by Dr. William Beckham. She reluctantly accepts to spend a minimum of six weeks there, where she comes in contact with the other patients: a pregnant women at risk of losing her baby, a young tubed girl in critical conditions and, amongst others, Luke, an English ballet dancer forced to give up his career after a knee injury.

Personally, I like how the rehab facility is painted: on one side you have a great deal of respect for the patient’s privacy, on the other a sort of support group that orbits around each individual struggling with their own difficulties. There is a lot of compassion in this movie.

A major theme of the movie is the dysfunctionality of Ellen’s family. Her stepmother and half-sister seem to be the the closest members. The father is never seen and appears to be constantly absent, whilst the biological mother has declared herself a lesbian, leaving the father and moving away with another woman. In the end though, it is Ellen who needs to confront her demons to get over her condition and only she can do so, no matter who stands by her side.

To the bone is directed by Marti Noxon, an ex-anorexic herself. From age fourteen to age twenty she struggled with eating disorders (anorexia and bulimia) and made the movie with a desire to better the disorder in a movie with humor and the prospective she has now as an adult. This desire spurred from the lack of proper depictions. Eating disorders on screen are very poorly depicted and limited to TV-movies. Her objective was to properly depict them for a larger public.

The problem with this movie is: in the end it has the same issues over movies about eating disorders have. Too concentrated on the weight aspect of the disorder (which any sufferer knows is not that primary), the movie has a series of triggering scenes which aren’t necessary and in the end risks triggering the eating disorder more than warning against it.

That said, watching the movie was overall pleasant. I enjoyed it and think the actors portrayal of the charachters was well executed. I don’t advise against this movie, but if you do suffer from anorexia (espescially if you are in the first stages of the illness), maybe it isn’t for you and tread carefully. It can unfortunately have a “pro-ana” effect.

Yours sincerely,

Dysfunctional Girl