Infinitely Polar Bear (2016)

Touches You

best movie i've ever seen.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Fantastic, real touch to feelings, one of the best way to feel the family spirit. And you can't stop your tears falling down while watching Mark Ruffalo.. Definitely one of the best movie that you can ever watch if you want to have a real emotional touch to your heart... Be ready to smile and cry at the most unexpected time...

I grew up with a manic-depressive father and this movie was spot-on. He wanted to hang around with my friends, he'd play games with me until I was worn out, he embarrassed me with his constant barrage of words-words-words. I knew he loved me and would do anything for me, but I also knew he couldn't be counted on to remember to pick me up at the movies.Certainly not all manic-depressives are the same, but there are some well-known patterns of thought and behavior, and this is a fine example of one of them.

If you love Mark Ruffalo--as I do--this is a must watch film. Everything is excellent: the story, script, casting, locations, costumes.... It is a rare find. I am a parent; I have friends and acquaintances with bipolar disorder. This film tackles those topics effectively and rings true on both fronts. The film is set in the late 1970s and touches on a variety of delicate subject matters for that era: class, wealth and poverty; mental disorders; biracial relationships; education and career opportunities for girls and women. And subjects matters that are still contentious today: disparity in public school districts; career opportunities for working mothers; effective parenting. Overall, this film is fascinating and I highly recommend it.

Writer/director Maya Forbes obviously feels quite passionately about the subject of manic depression, and I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the depiction of it in "Infinitely Polar Bear" is based on some personal experience. But the film she's made misses its marks by a wide margin, turning manic depression into something little more serious than a set of wacky eccentricities that with the right frame of mind can make a parent even more fun than he/she might otherwise be. Mark Ruffalo plays the parent struggling with mental illness, caring for his two daughters while his wife and their mother relocates temporarily from Boston to New York to go to school. That a mother would leave her daughters with a mentally unbalanced father in the first place, and further that she would continue to leave them with him after she finds out things like he leaves in the middle of the night and doesn't come home until morning, is treated by the film as no big deal. And it's not a big deal, as the movie would have it, since in this film mental illness just means that one has to deal with a kooky and sometimes embarrassing father. I have direct experience with mental illness, and this film's sugar coating of it is not only unrealistic but is downright irresponsible.Mark Ruffalo hams it up to the high heavens. He's a much better actor than one would ever be able to glean from his performance in this film. Zoe Saldana plays the mother and does OK with a not terribly interesting character, but as written she doesn't make any sense, so there's only so much Saldana could do with the character anyway.Grade: C