INFINITELY POLAR BEAR - review

INFINITELY POLAR BEAR

Director: Maya Forbes

Cast: Mark Ruffalo, Zoe Saldana, Imogene Wolodarsky, Ashley Aufderheide

You had me at Mark Ruffalo, but throw in Zoe Saldana and an autobiographical tale of a family coping with a parent with a mental illness and I couldn't have been more excited. 

Cameron (Ruffalo) lives with the highs, the lows, the breakdowns and the virtual impossibility of maintaining a steady job that come with having bipolar disorder (manic-depression) in the 70's. Unfortunately so does the rest of his family. Cameron's wife Maggie (Saldana) decides that enough is enough after Cameron's latest breakdown, and she packs up their two daughters and moves them from the country to Boston, while Cameron moves into a halfway house to recover. 

Their daughters, Amelia (Wolodarsky) and Faith (Aufderheide) resent Maggie for moving them from the country to a run down, rent controlled apartment in the shitty school district in Boston. They also don't hide their disappointment when Maggie won't let Cameron move back in with them. The girls know there's something not quite right with their dad, but they idolise him none the less and for every bad memory there is good one that surpasses it.

Maggie struggles to make ends meet, and decides to go to business school to further her own education so that she can get a better paying job and put the girls into private school. That's not a problem right? Wrong. The business school that Maggie gets into is Columbia. So, Maggie moves to New York, leaving Cameron in Boston to look after the two girls on his own, full time, Monday to Friday. 

Leave a man fresh from institutionalisation, who struggles with sustaining anything in life in charge of two young girls, sure, no worries. What could possibly go wrong? This is the question that the film deals with the most - how wise is it to leave this sort of person in charge of two children? The answer for most people would be that it's pretty bloody unwise and for the most part I would probably agree with them, as would most social workers and DHS officers. The one thing that Cameron does have going for him is his unwavering love for his family, and while he continually fails the many tests of parenting, the one thing that always brings him back from the edge is his girls. 

That is a lot of pressure for a child, but Amelia and Faith are up to the task. As embarrassing as their dad is, and for every ounce they hate their lot in life and their 'shit hole' of an apartment, they would do anything to keep their dad with them just as much as he would do anything to keep them with him. 

In this sense, the film isn't quite as affecting as I had anticipated it might be, as if we are viewing this family history through rose-coloured glasses. Which perhaps we are. Forbe's has written this autobiographical piece and is letting us into her family history, and as many of us do, when telling our own histories, has balanced the good with the bad, which we might not have found in a completely fictional script. There are some unanswered questions here too. Like, is it worth splitting your family up for 18 months so that you can send your children to a private school? Was Columbia the only school that Maggie could possibly have gotten in to? Where is Maggie's family in all this? 

You may be used to seeing Ruffalo and Saldana in big budget, hollywood blockbusters, but these two couldn't be a more perfect match for this beautifully crafted indie pic. Ruffalo did an outstanding job carrying out the characteristics of a man struggling between his illness and his love for his family. He was wild and charismatic, unpredictable and unassuming, but most of all realistic. Saldana played her character equally as well, bringing to the screen the very different sides of Maggie, the tormented woman who just can't take it anymore, the mother who wants the best for her children and will do anything to get it, and a woman who wants to be with her family, but can't. A truly ground performance of a woman who is so practical and grounded the polar opposite to her husband. As for Wolodarsky and Aufderheide, these two youngsters are worth keeping an eye out for in the future. They made me feel what they felt for the whole film, and I think that's pretty magical from two so young. 

By harnessing the good and bad memories, and entangling them with a cheerful score (put together b Theodore Shapiro), Forbes has turned this serious subject matter into a captivating and endearing film about a family whose love for one another outweighs all else. 

It is low budget, and indie, and the subject matter may turn some people off, but I think with such a great cast and some of the other great reviews coming out for it INFINITELY POLAR BEAR stands a chance with mainstream movie goers. I felt that it gave a fairly accurate representation of surviving in a peculiar family with peculiar circumstances and a parent with a mental illness (and let's face it, I would know). It was unpredictable, and sometimes uncomfortable, but the intricate details and the natural humour make it so easy to watch and to care about what happens to this little dysfunctional family. 

I say give it a chance, you will be surprised, and it's definitely worth the 20-something dollars to go and see it, and I'm all for supporting low key, independent productions, in this age of mass-produced, mass-marketed drivel. 

xoxo

The Blonde Bombshell