I contemplated on whether or not to write a response to this movie, but here I am writing one. The movie I am talking about is: To The Bone(warning-there is swearing in the movie and in the trailer, which you can watch here):
This, in my opinion, would be in the same category as 13 Reasons Why due to the fact that it addresses a topic that most don't want to bring to the light and talk about. When in fact, it needs to be talked about.
Anorexia is real and it affects not only women, as some think it does, but men too. My professor for my nutrition class I was in had us write a research paper at the end of the semester and we were giving a list of topics to pick from- I picked Anorexia Nervosa aka Anorexia. You don't want to know the amount of pro-anorexia blogs I found while doing research for my paper- it truly made me feel sick. Something else that I also found out during my research, which is very disturbing as well, was that most people who have anorexia, refer to it as a person named Ana. From what I could/can tell, Ana "keeps them on track" and losing weight and can get "angry" at them for eating. The one blog I used for my paper has since been deleted, but another I looked at while researching is still up and run by an actress- she of course, posts anonymously.
The access that we have to these kinds of things is ridiculous and, without knowing it, we have it 24/7 because we have access to the internet wherever we go now. All someone has to do is go to Google and search "pro anorexia blogs" and they will be met with endless "sources(emphasis on the quotation marks)" on how to become and stay anorexic. It truly saddens me because how could we let it get this bad? How could we let ourselves down this drastically? What are we doing to ourselves...to our future generations?!
I feel that To The Bone does a good job of letting us in to the life of someone with anorexia. We get to see the struggles and the denial in recognizing that they are as thin as they are. We also, as hard as it may be, get to see the realization that the person has to accept and actually want the help and treatment. There were ups and downs that Ellen (Lily Collins) goes through. In an interview, Lily Collins, who along with the director/writer, had an eating disorder, said that, "It was kind of healing to be able to make this movie" and that she "hopes it starts conversations," as well as that "this movie was and they as actors are/were in no glamorizing this illness." It was very interesting to watch and hard at the same time. I did get emotional and cry a couple times because it's a lot to take in. Keanu Reeves is also among the cast.
We have to, and I believe we are, starting to realize and promote that this isn't what you're supposed to look like to be beautiful or handsome. Being skin and bones, minus all of the complications it brings, is not beautiful or handsome at all and eating healthy/living a healthy lifestyle is completely different and fine. You can want to eat healthy or live a healthy lifestyle without taking it to this extreme, it is possible. We need to start talking about these topics without being afraid of them!
I'd definitely recommend watching this movie, however, if you have or are struggling with an eating disorder and want to watch it, please please please don't watch it alone. I, myself, don't really struggle with one and even with watching it with someone, it was still very difficult. Just please be safe and maybe wait until you know that it's not going to pull you back in to that world.
*Trailer found on Netflix youtube account
