Mental - A Review

Liev Schreiber, Anthony Lapaglia, Rebecca Gibney, Deborah Mailman and the truly brilliant Toni Collette. With these actors, how could any movie fail to deliver anything less than a stellar journey?

Add in the writing and direction of P. J. Hogan (the man behind such successes as Muriel's Wedding and My Best Friend's Wedding), and you get a delicious film in the form of Mental.

Mental. You really have to see it to believe it.

The movie looks at themes of mental health, family, grief, relationships, community, individuality, identity and acceptance. It's a key opportunity for open discussion of such issues, while conveying an entertaining and genuinely funny story inspired by Hogan's own childhood.

Gibney (who gained 15kg and wore a fat suit for the role) is the wife and mother, living with poor mental health. Her poor health is helped little by her bitch of a sister and her wandering cheat of a husband, Lapaglia, a local council man. Their children, living in an unsettled household, identify with different elements of mental illness, manifesting their lived experiences in self diagnosed pathologies.

Following a breakdown, Gibney "goes on holiday" in a psychiatric hospital, leaving her family motherless. Here enters Collette, a woman Lapaglia picks up from the side of the road, a stranger and a convenient nanny and mother figure to his children.

For me the whole movie really sparked into life when Collette appeared on screen. Her character Shazza is wonderful. She is well developed, with a pivotal back story. Her unique brand of charisma had me in awe. Captivating!

Shazza introduces herself to the children through confrontation, her own style of inspirational pragmatism and engages the whole family, as well as the cinema audience. Shazza has an impact on this family that transforms their lives and outlook, on an immeasurable scale. There is a scene where Shazza takes the children (with low self-esteem or belief in themselves) on a hike up to a mountain top just as the Sun rises. It's a challenging trek. When they reach the top, Shazza gives each child a small rock from the mountain. She asks them to hold the rock at any time in the future when life seems hard, or impossible, to remember this day. That anything is possible. These experiences shape people.

Mental is peppered with true Aussie humour, a real delight. And yes, there are parallels to Muriel's Wedding. But then that too was inspired by Hogan's life experiences. And again, the characters are well fleshed out and honest in only a way that can be possible in a real Australian movie.

Looking at schizophrenia, depression and the whole spectrum of mental health with such brazen humour is a bold move, but one which will be paying dividends to those who will enjoy this movie for years to come. It will be an iconic Aussie classic, I have no doubt.

There are chances taken in some scenes. One involved 6 females, menstruation cycles, a "clean freak" and lots of white furniture. Oh, and Deborah Mailman's character screaming "I need a mattress". Shock value, yes. Poor taste, yes. Funny, yes!

If you are feeling brave, find yourself in need of a laugh and don't mind the cost of a cinema ticket nowadays, there are definitely worse ways to spend a couple of hours.

Have you seen it? What did you think?