Canvas: A Movie with Many Dimensions

           It is a rare event when a motion picture presents paranoid schizophrenia in a responsible and accurate light. Canvas, which is due for release in five U.S. cities on October 12th of this year, is just such an event.  We are thankful for it.

The movie is a remarkably honest and unembellished account of a father and a ten year old son’s firsthand experiences with a mother attempting to cope with schizophrenia, a mother who loves both of them dearly despite her illness.   The mother in this story is struggling with auditory hallucinations (voices), paranoia, distorted thinking, anxiety, and perhaps even thought insertions.

[A more detailed summary of the plot can be found at www.canvasthefilm.com.]

With this blog I will add some observations about the film by comparing selected aspects of this complex brain disorder and associated effects as portrayed in the film with my own experiences.  I have lived with this potentially devastating brain disorder for over fifty years, so I have some measure of experiential authority.

I will start by saying that Canvas is exceptionally well done.  With widespread distribution, it could play an important role in fighting mental health stigma.  It neither embellishes nor sensationalizes the basic truths about schizophrenia.

One important aspect of Canvas is that its author/director, Joseph Greco, has NOT diluted the film by trying to include all of the many potential symptoms of schizophrenia.  These are sufficiently complex and interrelated in ways that would exhaust an audience.  The film paints a much clearer picture without all this detail.  Also, there are no composite characters.  Nor does the director indulge in stereotypes.  And equally important, there is no gratuitous use of bedlam or chaos, yet the agonies of the father, mother and son are palpable.

Marcia Gay Harden does a masterful job of portraying the demonstrable features of schizophrenia, but more importantly, with body language and facial expressions she draws out of her character and openly displays the devastating mental, emotional and physical affects of the illness for all to see.

Canvas also bears witness to the fact that some medications are helpful for some people but not for others.  While current medications can increase the functionality of a person suffering with schizophrenia dramatically, there is no panacea, no silver bullet.  The reactions to available medications differ from consumer to consumer, as well as over time and most introduce complications in the form of unwanted or uncomfortable side affects.  For some individuals, medical science has yet to develop effective medications.

When I first became ill there was only one medication available and it did very little to help.  Under the supervision of my psychiatrist, I tried every new medication introduced until we found one that worked for me.  It took us ten years.  The irony today is there are so many medications one can look long and hard before they find the one that works best for them.  I took this same medication for over forty years and did very well until one day, with any warning, it simply stopped working.