Words on Bathroom Walls

Words on Bathroom Walls
Starring Charlie Plummer, Taylor Russell, Molly Parker, Walton Goggins
Directed by Thor Freudenthal

There's something that I believe most of us are guilty of: judging people with mental illness.  We see that strange person on the street talking to themselves, and we do everything we can to avoid any contact with that person.  We see someone clearly struggling with internal demons, and we dismiss them as crazy and meaningless.  "Words on Bathroom Walls" is one of those films that not only sheds light on such a mental disease, but gives it a voice, a heart, an emotion, and most importantly, humanity.

Adam Petrazelli (Charlie Plummer) is in his last year of high school, and wants to go to culinary school afterward, due to his impeccable cooking abilities and the fact that he's been doing it for years since his father left him and his mother Beth (Molly Parker).  Then Adam starts having hallucinations of a hippie chick (AnnaSophia Robb), a 90s-style horndog friend (Devon Bostick), and a burly bodyguard (Lobo Sebastian), as well as a disembodied demonic voice and swirling black mist, and he wonders what's wrong with him.  He's soon diagnosed with Schizophrenia, and after a grueling attack at school, gets him expelled. 

Beth and her new boyfriend Paul (Walton Goggins) enlist Adam to a Catholic school under the condition that he maintains an A average and continues to take his medication - which has dispelled the voices and hallucinations, but left Adam with muscle spasms and a lack of taste.  At first Adam is excited to be at the new school with a new start, and enlists the help of future valedictorian Maya (Taylor Russell) to tutor him in math after discovering she's doing a side hustle in selling test answers to fellow students.  At first it's all business, but the two begin spending more time together and both of them begin opening up more, and Adam fears that his Schizophrenia will not allow him to fully love and be loved - sending him into a downward spiral as he stops taking his medication due to its own nasty side effects and threatens to ruin everything he worked so hard for.

Typically I'm not a huge fan of the teenage romantic drama films, as they generally follow the same pattern, and on that end "Walls" is exactly the same: it doesn't tread from the norms of the genre (you can tell how it'll all eventually end, you can guess the secrets that both characters try to hide, and it's all very formulaic), but in this case you don't have to change the wheel to make it work.  Generally these films follow the female in her search for love, but here it's a teenage boy who's the center of attention, and also dealing with Schizophrenia as well.  We don't often see the male having emotions or deep thoughts, but this is all the film is - seeing Adam struggling with love and wanting to be loved in a life that he feels he can't attain either one, as well as wanting so hard to become who he wants to be, and not be the disease that's overtaken him.

The love story part of the film also works well due to the natural chemistry and nuanced performances of the young leads Charlie Plummer (no relation to the great Christopher Plummer) and Taylor Russell.  Plummer pulls you into his life in the very first frame, and maintains your hold throughout the runtime, gripping your heart and keeping you invested in his life, as he's a troubled character but also deeply human, giving you someone to root for.  Likewise, Russell's Maya is headstrong, deeply intelligent, gives her all, and is formed from the struggles in her own life that unravel like a spool of thread that again keeps us interested and invested in her as well.  Neither one is at all unlikable, and both are scrappy underdogs who've gone against the odds to get where they're at. 

Along with Plummer and Russell, the supporting cast also give amazing performances.  Molly Parker gives Adam's mother a deeper emotional depth than your average mother struggling with her son's illness.  Walton Goggins' Paul is also more than just a typical future stepfather that comes into conflict with Adam (and has his own moment to truly shine near the end).  Andy Garcia has a cameo as an understanding priest who helps Adam through his struggles, and the trio of Adam's hallucinations steal the show as well.  No one has a bad performance, and no one phones it in - they're all deeply committed to the project, and so are we.

There is one poignant, powerful moment in the film where Adam talks about the stigma of Schizophrenia against other diseases like cancer: "When you are a cancer kid, people can't wait to flock to your aid.  They are so eager to grant you any wish before you die.  But when you have Schizophrenia, people can't wait to make you someone else's problem.  That's why we end up on the streets screaming at nothing, waiting to die.  No one wants to grant our wishes."  Later on, we go on a date with Adam and Maya, and when they get on the bus to go home, see a man talking to himself in the back row, and that quote hits harder than expected.  Again, we all have dealt with people who seem a little off, who aren't all there mentally, and we feel like its their fault, its something they did, and we need to ignore them - but in dealing with people with cancer and other diseases, we're quick to help them and give them whatever they need.  This is a stigma that people with Schizophrenia and other diseases like that deal with everyday, and if anything this film opened my own eyes more to their struggles and, more importantly, their worth.

Filled with dedicated performances and shedding light on an almost ignored disease, "Words on Bathroom Walls" is much more than your typical teenage romantic drama - its a wake-up call to the importance of treating everyone with respect, and knowing that the biggest ideals in life is to love and be loved.

The Score: A+