noregretsjust-love:

Last night I watched “To the Bone” and legitimately cried throughout the whole thing. I was skeptical of how the film would be, based on my mixed feelings about 13 Reasons Why; however, I have to say it was an extremely well done portrayal of life with anorexia.

I think casting Lily Collins, someone who has struggled with an ED helped a lot. The film did not glamorize anorexia or other eating disorders and showed the harsh reality of them physically (e.g., extreme dehydration, fainting, lanugo, loss of period), emotionally, and socially. They also had a male character with an ED and also included BED and bulimia in the treatment center. I also like how the film displayed how EDs do not only stem from one thing (the desire to be thin) and that an accumulation of negative life events can impact the development of an eating disorder. Further, I loved how it showed the multiple different ways people in your life respond to and cope with a loved ones eating disorder.

The biggest critiques I have seen of the film are: (1) the treatment isn’t realistic and (2) they shouldn’t put a love story in a film about eating disorders. Here are my thoughts:
1. The film explicitly states that Dr. Beckham’s methods are unconventional. In the waiting room, Ellen’s step mother is talking to another mother who reported they had tried “Renfrew and Maudsley” which didn’t work. Renfrew is probably one of the best known ED treatment facilities in the US and other than CBT-E the Maudsley model is the only intervention to have evidence based effectiveness in treating eating disorders. The producers did not just haphazardly out together a Treatment Center and make Keanu Reeve’s character blunt and somewhat abrasive due to lack of knowledge. It was intentional to be unconventional and they explicitly stated that.
2. Many people are saying that a love story is unrealistic, has no place in the film, or is portraying that you need to fall in love to recover from an eating disorder. That is not how I took the storyline at all. Despite the fact I don’t care for Luke’s character, I took it as Ellen being able to focus her attention on something other than her disorder; being able to recognize something to live for, similar to Megan and her baby. Oftentimes people with an ED need to find a reason to recover and that reason isn’t always internal. It can be a family member, an unborn child, a sport, or a romantic partner. This movie wasn’t saying Ellen needs to fall in love to recover, it was showing that for the first time in a long time Ellen was able to identify a reason for living, which she had been lacking for so many years.

I didn’t like the ending, mostly because I wanted more. But it ended in a way that leaves so many avenues for another film to be made if they wanted to. It also left the viewer with a sense of wonder. Was this the time she would recover? Would she relapse again? What happens when Luke leaves? Does Megan come back? So many loose ends, but overall I was very impressed with the film.