Prozac Nation (2003)

Too many fans seem to be blown away

Nice effects though.

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Prozac Nation is a well-directed movie featuring particularly strong performances from its star Christina Ricci, and Jessica Lange, who plays Ricci's mother; it is, however, an almost totally joyless experience, charting the mental problems suffered by promising journalism student Lizzie (Ricci), whose troubled childhood, and subsequent substance abuse, has left her with a severe case of depression. Watching Lizzie slowly become more paranoid, obsessive, and self-destructive, driving away those who love her in the process, is far from fun viewing, and I strongly recommend that those suffering from depression themselves give this film a wide berth.I know I should have stopped watching straight after Ricci's nude scene (the only bit in the film to put a smile on my face).Being such a downer of a movie, albeit a well made one, Prozac Nation is hard to rate, so I'll take the easy way out and give it 5/10.

Prozac Nation for those who don't know was a collection of memoirs by Elizabeth Wurtzel about her time being depressed. I have never read the book but I did want to see this movie because I like both Christina Ricci and Emily Perkins as actresses. So I think that it is pretty good but it does have a lot of problems.The plot is that when Elizabeth goes to Harvard she starts to live the wild life while trying to put together articles, some even for Rolling Stone Magazine. Soon life gradually spins out of control, the more time that passes the faster her life goes out of control. Soon she becomes depressed and mean-spirited to other people (sometimes out of complete nowhere).The acting of this movie is actually pretty good. I have already said I like Christina Ricci and Emily Perkins as actresses but it's everyone who puts in stellar performances. This is easily the best element of the film.Another thing I liked was the ending... That might make me sound as if I didn't like the movie but I really liked the ending. It doesn't give itself Hollywood clichés such as some guardian angel figure telling Elizabeth how to snap out of her depression... It even flat out says that.If I am going to go into complaints it would have to be the way Elizabeth goes through some of her depression. Some of the times when she becomes mean spirited, sometimes it's justified a little bit to make me say "Yes, even though I don't agree with what she's doing I can at least understand it" while others she almost snaps out of nowhere.So I really liked this movie. There were some problems with the movie (The biggest being how Elizabeth acts sometimes) but it actually is a pretty solid film. If you are a fan of Christina Ricci or if you like seeing films about depression then I think this film does bring some good acting and none of this guardian angel stuff Hollywood throws at you then I'd say pick this one up.

Yes, you will see the beautiful and barely 20 yo Christina Ricci topless in this depressing movie about depression and anti-depressants. I don't care what kind of pills she's on when the lights go off and those roundy rounds come out to play. Cheer up buttercup, you have a kickin' body, and you've made sure that everyone in America knows it. The movie is a little bit of a downer though, so take my advice and turn the sound off, see those big beautiful breasts floppin' around over that skinny, taught stomach of hers, and see where the night takes ya. Let it do what it do...let tha flow go, and us ladies may find out a little more about ourselves than we ever wanted to know.

Watching Prozac Nation is a confusing experience. This is supposed to be *the* film about depression, adapted from the memoir by Elizabeth Wurtzel which is revered by neurotic teenage girls everywhere. I just could not bring myself to empathize with this beautiful, middle-class "literary freak" who has her life cut out for her at the expense of nearly everyone around her. The alienated Lizzie is taken by her doting, overworked mother to the most prestigious college in the world, immediately clicks with her new bff, goes to parties, drinks and does drugs, falls in love and gets paid to do what she loves writing rock reviews for Rolling Stone magazine. I don't imagine many young people who suffer with major depression can relate to this. I understand and respect that depression is something which can affect anyone (in fact, there is a proved correlation between material security and depression), but the film doesn't even attempt to thematically explore that. Instead of showing her context of thoughts and emotions, she spends half of the film screaming hysterically and insulting people. The only context we get is some clumsily tacked-on monologue, presumably pulled from the book. It is not an intelligent, cinematic development which leaves us with any feeling of why the character does the things she does. She just comes off as spoiled and conceited.Before the credits roll, we are told that "In the US, more than 300 million prescriptions are filled every year for prozac and other anti- depressants", leaving one with the impression that this was *supposed* to be an anti-drugs film. Funny that, as the subject of medication is only briefly alluded to at the end of the film with a scene that literally has all the subtlety of a succession of people collecting their prescriptions and Lizzie looking on thoughtfully. Hardly a critical commentary on an increasingly medicated America.One good thing about Prozac Nation is that there are some great lines in it, some nuggets of wisdom which I can only assume is to be credited to the book rather than anyone to do with the film. Lizzie describes depression as occurring "gradually, then suddenly" (a reference to Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises), and at the end of the film realises that recovery happens the same way. There is also quite a disturbing scene where we see that her apathy and her suicidality has affected her so profoundly that she's "not even afraid of heights anymore", illustrating her grim detachment from material reality.Though I have not read the book, I got the feeling that Wurtzel's undoubtedly highly personal narratives simply did not translate well into film. The complexity of the topic perhaps evaded the producers, who wanted to make an artsy, marketable film that would be enjoyed by a teenage demographic. There are many complications resulting from teenage depression: The pressure to "get better". The guilt of having a parent spend so much money on your therapy with no guarantee that it'll "work". The frustration of not having anyone understand you and not being able to articulate your experience. Where the film attempts to convey any of this, it falls short as we are distracted by Christina Ricci's annoying pretensions. All in all, Prozac Nation does not do justice to the highly complex topic that it has taken on. If the "beautiful and tragic" character trope annoys you to high hell… then watch this film anyway because it's fun to complain about things.