Sometimes a film doesn’t offer a solution to the problems or underlying struggles it illustrates. Sometimes life just sucks, and you have to live with it. This film is about mental illness and how it can affect people’s lives. What’s often overlooked is that there is no way to avoid who you are when you have an illness similar to those depicted in Manic. “Wherever you’re going, you’re still gonna be there,” is a quote from the film that perfectly encapsulates this idea. 

To carry on a life this way can be too hard for people. In society, we see it constantly out on the street with people shouting at things that aren’t there, or drug users lying unconscious. Though these issues may always be there,  what I find myself thinking about is how those people got to be there. Manic provides an idea of how such things can begin.  

Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays a character in a psych ward surrounded by troubled youths whose struggles with mental illness often lead them to violence, on themselves or others. While there are many instances in which you can blame these people for their mistakes, they are not the real issue; it’s how they’ve been raised and the trauma they have been exposed to. 

For Lyle, his dad abused him. From that he learned to hurt people who “deserve” it. However, while at the facility, he also learns this is not a way to live. Even if people cause you pain, you cannot be a part of the reason they continue to act that way. 

Another example is Chad, who struggles deeply with his mental illness and the idea that life has no purpose. Even with the support of the staff and Lyle, he is pushed over the edge. Yet he chooses his actions, and when he almost kills a staff member, there is no going back from that for him. 

These characters show the different paths people’s lives can take, even when they share similar circumstances. Ultimately, you have to decide what you are willing to accept and the kind of life you want to live. 

Another film I think does a good job of showing this type of struggle is Girl, Interrupted (1999), which also follows teens in a psych ward, though set years before in the ’60s with a female protagonist. I mention it because these issues will persist: people who are not well can still exist out in the world with no support system or outlet for their pain. Life is just this way for some people, and that is a hard truth to accept. 

Unfortunately, the problems that the characters in both these films experience run too deep to be prevented. Manic tries to bring awareness to this important issue.