This is a strong low-budget effort with winning characters and sound psychological understanding extending beyond the extremes the patients have been driven toward.

 

Autobiographical spec screenplays typically focus on someone trying to settle a grudge against a parent or former romantic partner. The solution to all life’s problems is generally presented as writing a screenplay about the matter, which becomes a hit film and makes the public instantly side with the writer while the object of their scorn is publicly shunned. The problem is that such writers seem to expect the audience to unconditionally accept such a self-serving view while denying any responsibility on the part of the lead itself.

 

By comparison, this screenplay asks the viewer to go through a full process with the lead, who changes significantly over the course of the story. Just as Taren rejects any sympathy or support from others at the beginning of the film, the authors refuse to soften her nature to draw the audience to her side. It is only when Taren begins to develop empathy for others that the viewers can develop empathy of their own for the character, creating a mutual learning curve that becomes the true spine of the narrative.

 

As we learn about the patients on the ward, their varied suicide efforts come more and more to resemble different roads toward the same destination. Death is sought as an escape from pain, and the source of such turmoil inevitably comes down to unbearable memories of family discord. The medical solution for all this, for better and generally worse, is to bring these wounded individuals together as a pseudo family who may be able to give one another the understanding that has eluded them in the outside world.

 

In Taren’s case, the combination of family and memory find a balance in Mrs. Kelly, a loving maternal figure who is increasingly trapped in the present moment. She offers Taren the validation the young woman so desperately needs, yet also demonstrates how insubstantial the past can become within the mind, a powerful lesson for a woman who has decided that death is preferable to dealing with the consequences of her parents’ failings.

 

Accepting Mrs. Kelly creates a broader need in Taren that draws her to reverse her initial rage, the older woman becoming something of a role model in both her general kindness as well as an example of a life that has endured both tragedy and joy. Basically, as Taren begins to accept her own vulnerability, she finds herself perceiving the vulnerability in others and seeking to give them the support she has needed for so long.

 

This seems obvious when we view Taren’s interaction with the other patients, but the ultimate test comes in the final session with Kepler. If Taren views Kelly as a “good mother,” for her kindness, she is equally mistrustful of “bad mother” Kepler, who represents the authority and control Taren’s own mother had abused so terribly. Taren is able to break this division by getting beneath Kepler’s professional façade so that the two can connect momentarily as human beings.

 

While this connection is not going to extend to Taren’s own mother, it breaks the spell of power that Taren had created in her mind concerning the past. What had seemed overwhelming about her mother can now be placed in context. The memories remain painful but are no longer the core of Taren’s perception.

 

The other patients provide a sliding scale of individual awareness. Carlos is the most-self aware, while Maria presents the most stable façade (though maintaining this act may cause her to melt down faster than any of the others). Near the end, Heather begins to regard Taren almost as Taren had regarded Maria, but Taren avoids repeating history by refusing to be anything other than her own self, still in the process of recovery.

 

Thus the observation ward here becomes less an exception to ordinary life than a laboratory carefully exaggerating the basics of human interaction that everyone has to learn to deal with. In following Taren’s progress, a sensitive viewer will come face to face with their own issues concerning others and leave the story with the insights the authors have gained through these experiences. Far from becoming a self-serving account, the story offers universal understanding, presenting a variety of characters ultimately contributing to the wisdom of not only Taren but everyone who accompanies her on the journey she begins here.

 

~Eric Yarber

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                                                                   Depression = PRESS ON