Well, what is a borderline personality disorder? I concede that it is a
thing because it sounds vaguely familiar to me, but I would not trust myself to
describe it accurately. And I just watched an entire movie in which the main character
a woman by the name of Alice Klieg (Kristin Wiig) explores all of its facets in
a very public way. The very public way she does socially awkward things I
suspect is part of her disorder. But in another sense she does a lot of things
that utterly stupid though completely sane people are capable of as well. The
distinction is important especially in a comedy because stupid people are funny
but mentally ill people are not. So which of Alice Klieg’s actions fall into
what camp? A better definition of what ails her would help the audience out quite
a bit. As it is, the prevailing feeling in the theater is, “should we be
laughing at this?”
Alice Klieg lives alone and with the TV on nonstop. She especially likes
talk shows like Oprah. One day she wins the lottery, a seventy million dollar
jackpot. She has a conversation with her psychotherapist (Tim Robbins) in which
she explains that she will stop taking her medication and move into a casino
hotel room. She also has big plans for an Oprah like talk show. She pitches the
idea to a local access production channel. “I want it to be about me,” she
explains, “and I want to come in on a Swan boat.” The head of the channel
(James Marsden) asks for 150K per show for 100 shows. She immediately takes out
her checkbook. After the meeting the other members of his production company,
his brother (Wes Bentley) and two producers (Jennifer Jason Leigh and Joan
Cusack), balk at the idea. But Marsden explains that they are almost broke.
They either take the money or start laying people off. So “Welcome to Me,” a show written,
directed, and hosted by a crazy person is born on the local access channel in
the 10am two hour time slot.
This is a very interesting premise with lots of potential as a movie but
the pitfalls should be rather obvious. The main one is that making fun of a
person with mental illness is not a nice thing to do. And if you don’t make fun
of them, than where is the comedy going to come into play. The best example of
a movie making that leap is David O. Russell’s ‘Silver Linings Playbook’ that
has several characters with some sort of madness in them. But at the same time
they aren’t completely defined by their madness. That is to say they are people
with personalities that have disorders not just clinical manifestations of the
disorder itself. This allows their behavior to be guided by choices. Choices
maybe influenced by the illness sure, but choices nevertheless. The clear
demarcation of where illness ends and personality begins is how the viewer
knows whether to laugh at Bradley Cooper wearing a garbage bag while he is
running. There is reason behind it. He wants to lose weight and the bag helps
him sweat. And yes he knows he looks ridiculous but he doesn’t care because he
is very excited and focused on what he is doing. The “excited” and “focused” is
part of his disorder but Cooper puts on the bag ultimately for sane reasons: he
wants to lose weight. His disorder doesn’t compel him to wear garbage bags
while jogging for no reason. If it did, it would not be funny. It would be
sad.
When Alice Klieg is shown sleeping on a bed in a sleeping bag as opposed
to under the covers it is not explained why she wants to do this or even
whether a borderline personality disorder would influence a person’s choice to
do this. (I assumed germophobic reasons but then again I’m not sure what that
has to do with bordline personality disorder). Or take the several instances in
which she states that winning the lottery was not luck but due to believing in
herself, an idea she got from watching Oprah. Now for all I know that could be
part of the disorder. But it could also be the case that she is just a stupid
person. I wish I knew because its mean to make fun of retarded people for being
retarded and I’m not sure if that is what is going on here. Here is an example
of an opportunity wasted: Very early on in the story we are told that Alice is
off her medication. Well, okay. But what was she like when she was on
medication? That would be a good clue as to what is happening with her. This is
not explored by the movie.
To be clear the movie does not impinge upon the viewer any guilt from
watching the proceedings. (If they were funnier perhaps they would. I am
reminded a little bit of the remake of a French movie in which a group of
elites host a competition to bring the biggest idiot they can find to dinner
party.) The main reason is that Alice Klieg’s friends, family, and ultimately
her cash-strapped employees act in good faith around her. Nobody tries to
ouright steal her winnings. Sure having a TV show is an incredible waste of
money but lottery money is fit to be wasted and to the production company’s
credit, they try to do a competent job of realizing her vision. The TV show
itself is the most interesting thing going on in this movie. Here Alice
recreates dramatic scenes from her life, fake fights with her mom (an
off-screen Joan Cusack) who always wins, makes and eats her favorite recipes, and
even uses her past veterinary skills to neuter and spay any dogs the audience
wants to bring into the studio. Something is going on in that studio and it may
or may not be special but it is at least original. The reactions of
the people working there are mixed. For instance Jennifer Jason Leigh’s
character quits but it is not entirely clear whether she does so because she
thinks the company is taking advantage of Alice or because she thinks the work
is below her. Maybe both. Wes Bentley takes Alice out on a couple of dates
because she asks him to. She is very intent on sleeping with him right away.
Again it might be nice to know if that is the disorder working or plain
horniness.
Is it possible to be cured of borderline personality disorder? The movie
ends with Alice doing several things differently than she usually does in her
normal routine like for instance sleeping under the covers instead of in a sleeping bag. I’m not sure what that means. As for Kristin Wiig’s
performance, since I did not really understand the character, I’m not sure how
to gauge its excellence. She is always interesting to watch and it speaks of
good casting to put her into the main role here but her comic potential is
limited by all the above. Comedy writers take note for your future endeavors:
It is not enough that a person enters a room in a swan boat. That situation is
not inherently funny. You have to know why they are doing it.
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