Given the subject matter in this film and its intended message, I feel that I have to be honest about my own personal history before getting into this review in full, specifically in regards to my own health, so here goes. My name is Johnny Owens. I am bipolar. I take lithium every day in order to treat it. I have tried to kill myself four times.
I was concerned going into this review simply because of how difficult I knew it would be to remain entirely objective, given how close to the bone I’d assumed Connect would be for me. This is why I find it so utterly frustrating by how uneven this film feels.
First things first, Connect means well, that much is very clear, and it definitely hits a number of nails on their respective heads. This is in no small way thanks to Kevin Guthrie’s portrayal of Brian. Through the tiny tics and twitches – that would, importantly, go unnoticed to many – Guthrie conveys effectively, and mostly silently, what it is to experience the emotional paralysis that is depression. It’s in its quietest moments that Connect is at its most affecting.
Unfortunately, much of the dialogue feels somewhat robotic. Again, what is being said is fair, honest and true, but the characters simply don’t sound human. The result is that the film is often reduced to sounding like an ‘after school special’ or a soap opera episode dealing with suicide.
The major gripe that I have with Connect is that any film dealing with such a subject as serious as suicide should not employ plot twists, as a rule. A film that encourages its audience to be honest with one another and unafraid of their feelings should itself be honest about just how devastating suicide is. Instead the audience is provided with what amounts to a recovery fantasy before having the rug pulled out from beneath them. It’s shocking, certainly, but it also feels cheap, bordering on feeling manipulative.
All of this aside, there are a number of aspects that Connect gets right. The first comes in the opening scene, wherein someone preparing to throw themselves from a cliff is shaking from fear by what they’re about to do. One of the most misunderstood aspects of taking your own life is that it is somehow a simple act – we’ve all heard of ‘taking the easy way out’. It’s far from easy. It’s terrifying.
The deafening mental white noise that accompanies anxiety is portrayed almost perfectly, and this is again almost entirely down to Guthrie’s performance. Another small detail the film gets right is the distinction between contemplating suicide and simply thinking about suicide as an abstract concept – many of us look at a knife and register the fact that we could turn it on ourselves without ever actually contemplating acting upon the thought.
I wanted to like this film so much, I really did. Connect is so profoundly frustrating to me because of what it could have been. It could have been a touching and necessary film about a horrid and destructive epidemic that has affected and continues to affect so many people, which is why it’s all the more unfortunate that it’s so clumsily executed.
Director: Marilyn Edmond
Writer: Marilyn Edmond
Stars: Kevin Guthrie, Siobhan Reilly, Stephen McCole
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I have also had serious depression and tried to commit suicide on multiple occasions, so watching the film hit a few nerves for me too. However, they were the right nerves, those that made me remember all too well that feeling of actually contemplating it, of not wanting to be around people but somehow craving company at the same time and the anxiety that still hasn’t left me. My depression was brought on by grief, similarly to the character in the film, and I think it captured the aftermath that some can experience in bereavement perfectly. The circumstances were different for me, but the general idea was the same such as wondering if my father would approve of a certain action, person, situation. I don’t want to spoil the film for anyone, so I won’t give too much away, but this film absolutely nailed that on the head and in a prominent way. The metaphors used throughout, as well as the acting, cinematography and the accompanying beautiful music all contributed to a highly impacting film about a taboo subject.
Regarding the plot twist, it was actually this that made the film more poignant and showed the subject matter to be taken very seriously. It could have easily ended on the scene before, but it didn’t because that is not the reality of the situation. I also really liked that the film works on two levels, as it reflected both a “what could have been” or a “it didn’t really get better” situation, depending on your interpretation of the ending. For me, the film was a beautiful and elegant depiction of an awful subject, with many surprising highlights and a fair amount of comedy despite such a deep and personal topic. The point of the film was to encourage people to open up about their mental health, particularly males, and it seems to be achieving that as I wouldn’t normally discuss my own experience of this but now feel more compelled to do so. Of course, no film can tell every person’s story, and perhaps it didn’t tell yours from your view on it, but this one certainly resonated with my own and for that I am very grateful.