Bad to the Bone

Directed by Marti Noxon

Starring: Lily Collins, Keanu Reeves, Alex Sharp, Carrie Preston, Kathryn Preston

Another day, another Netflix movie to review. And as with 13 Reasons Why, Netflix tackles another issue facing so many people, especially younger people in this movie. Anorexia and various eating disorders. Now, when you make a film about these sorts of problems you would think to make this something of meaning, something to help the audience resonate and believe it is a great way to get inspiration, something to help you feel un-isolated and proud to overcome these sorts of illnesses. Let me tell you know that this film really doesn't handle this well. Due to bad writing, bad acting and terrible characterisation and acting To the Bone falls flat. You may have heard this is a controversial film, and it is, for all the wrong reasons. Here's why.

So Ellen (Lily Collins) struggles in her day to day life due to having anorexia. She is a moody and very shut in girl who lives with her stepmother and sister, with no dad around to support her. Ellen is invited by Dr Beckham (Reeves) to undergo a program with other teenagers struggling with these sorts of problems to help and get her through the issues she faces.

As I said, this film's biggest flaw is in its characters. Lily Collins isn't terrible in this film, as I admire her commitment to looking the part. After understanding she suffered with anorexia herself, seeing her in the condition she was in was made all the more impactful, one of the films strongest elements. But what falls flat is her character. She isn't a person I wanted to root for, she's very boring and doesn't come off as interesting, even when interacting with other characters, where her intentions are very skewed at some points. I was more interested in the other kids subplots as they seemed to actually talk about their problems a lot more, and it was more saddening to see them and their responses. Collins does not have any emotional moments and the ones that are there are at the end, but by the time the film got to them I was disinterested in her. Reeves looks like he doesn't want to be there, and plays a very cheesy and sometimes fun to laugh at performance. His line delivery indicates he's may be overacting. 

But by far the worst element of this film is Luke (Sharp) and the romantic subplot between him and Ellen. Luke is awfully acted by Sharp and is honestly the biggest creep of a character I've seen in a film for ages. He's annoying, obnoxious, a total dick and he has an awfully awkward performance to give. The romance is shoe-horned in, and whilst the film doesn't romanticise anorexia as some people make it out to do, it just throws it in for no reason without it going anywhere. There's no real chemistry between the two, they just seem to get on each others nerves and the emotional scenes between them are either acted poorly or are just laughably bad. I think a bit of both. The time this pointless subplot takes up in the movie could have been used to, well I don't know, maybe go into a bit more of the issue that Ellen has? Because we barely get any of that throughout the course of the film.

It's only at the end, the third act where we begin to understand Ellen and what's going on with her. The film concentrates on just others or pointless subplots rather than on what she's going through, and even the end where we get to see this from her, is executed poorly. It's cheesy, silly and un-impactful, and then the film just ends in an odd place. I would have much rather have liked the film to follow any of the other characters (except Luke) as they seemed like they had more of a story to tell and were far more interesting than Ellen. For a film about anorexia you'd think that maybe the film would actually look at it a bit more? I mean it's there, but honestly I didn't know what kind of point the film was trying to make.

It has its moments, some scenes are well written and put together and the cinematography and graininess are something which felt good to me. But really I can't pinpoint anything outstanding, and that's because this film completely misses the point. I'm sure some will perceive it in a different light to me but it's hard to see why this couldn't have used the opportunity the director was given to make a film about a girl struggling with the condition... because that's what the film is about right?

The Good

- Graininess and cinematography is good in places

- Realistic body changes from Collins help move the film more

The Bad

- Acting and characterisation

- LUKE.

- Some awful writing

- Shoe-horned in subplots distract from the message

- The message just isn't described clearly for us

4/10