Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.5

Words on Bathroom Walls Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 19, 2020

It’s perhaps slightly amusing that a film about mental illness should be co-produced and directed by a guy with one of the most legendary names in the history of psychiatry buried in his own name, but that’s the case with Words on Bathroom Walls and Thor Freudenthal. Freud himself may have advocated lengthy analysis sessions to try to confront various psychological issues, but that was (not to state the obvious) before the days of pharmaceutical approaches, but Freud famously felt psychoanalysis could run up against a brick wall of sorts when dealing the schizophrenia, the mental illness at the core of Words on Bathroom Walls. There have been a glut of films featuring one or more teenaged characters undergoing the throes of some horrifying disease, but somehow managing to find true love despite the challenges, and some may approach Words on Bathroom Walls with a fair amount of trepidation, thinking that there’s no way this film could do anything new with such by now familiar material. And yet, this film has a rather distinctive “personality” (multiple or not), and manages to find quite a bit of heart in a story that is resolutely centered on a kid being held captive by his errant mind.

There is an analyst, albeit unseen, in Words on Bathroom Walls, one that teen Adam Petrazelli (Charlie Plummer) addresses directly looking at the camera, as if the audience is sitting there with a notebook writing down what he’s saying. That said, part of the film hinges on Adam’s reactions to various psychotropic drugs, though he is in a select group who is “treatment resistant”. That doesn’t stop his mother Beth (Molly Parker) from looking for new alternatives, and she ultimately manages to get Adam into a test subject regimen for a new "cure". Meanwhile, Adam’s frequent narration has divulged that he wants to get through high school, something that’s become more complicated due to the increasing symptoms he’s been suffering, in order to move on to culinary school. And in fact a brief vignette documents Adam’s father leaving him and Beth, and Adam finding solace in cooking a series of gourmet offerings for his mom, an activity that seems to still the voices that frequently haunt his every waking hour.

Adam's symptoms are so acute that he doesn't just hear voices, however. He also sees a coterie of imaginary characters, including free spirit Rebecca (AnnaSophia Robb), who keeps encouraging him to breathe through his problems; Joaquin (Devon Bostwick), a kind of horndog personification of the very Id that Freud claimed was responsible at least in part for schizophrenia; and The Bodyguard (Lobo Sebastian), who is typically wanting to crack someone's head in, whether or not they really deserve it. It actually takes a horrifying meltdown at school for Adam to be properly diagnosed, though he's still not out of the woods for any number of reasons.

His mom seemingly pretty quickly hooks up with a guy named Paul (Walton Goggins) after Adam's Dad deserts her, and unsurprisingly Adam is suspicious of this new character in his home environment. When he's expelled from his high school, things seem to be getting even worse, but his mother arranges for him to be accepted at a Catholic parochial school, which some may liken to jumping out of the fire and into the frying pan. Though he's ostensibly beginning the drug still in a testing phase, his interview with Sister Catherine (Beth Grant), delivered with seemingly literal hellfire breaking out all over her office due to Adam's hallucinations, rather clearly shows he's still suffering.

Words on Bathroom Walls is probably a bit too sanguine for its own good in terms of detailing Adam's travails within the context of a supportive family unit (Adam's suspicions about Paul notwithstanding), but probably even more overtly within the context of a burgeoning romance with fellow student Maya (Taylor Russell). A kindly priest at the school named Father Patrick (Andy Garcia) also helps Adam, in a plot device that would seem to be a direct refutation of a kind of snarky joke Adam tells to his unseen therapist about an ostensible kum-ba-yah moment in Good Will Hunting.

There's a lot of good content in the film, and some significant truths are told (a throwaway line by Adam actually more or less echoes verbatim a quote by Frances Farmer on her This Is Your Life appearance in 1958, "If you're treated like a patient, you're apt to act like one"), but as with so many films of this ilk, all of the problems tend to just get papered over in a mad rush toward a happy ending. I'm not sure this aspect serves a greater understanding of those suffering from schizophrenia (or indeed any mental illness), but it at least allows the audience to leave with a certain feeling of catharsis.

While the fact that Words on Bathroom Walls deals with a young man attempting to survive in a school environment while dealing with schizophrenia might suggest to some to think of it as A Beautiful Mind: The Early Years, this outing doesn't have the structural conceit of the Ron Howard film, since Adam narrates a good deal of the proceedings and pretty much announces right off the bat (at least once it's properly diagnosed) that he has schizophrenia and that he knows he's experiencing both auditory and visual hallucinations. Even that aspect may point up how this film kind of blithely accepts this disability, perhaps suggesting, subtly or otherwise, that Adam's own self awareness will help him to overcome any obstacles.

Words on Bathroom Walls Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Words on Bathroom Walls is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The IMDb lists Arri Alexa Minis, but fails to include at what resolution the DI was finished, though I'm assuming 2K. This is an appealing looking transfer that typically has great looking detail, albeit within a context where things can be intentionally skewed when Adam is having one of his "episodes". In that regard, there's some kind of soft and not always effective CGI in this film, including everything from a "dark cloud" that consumes various people (including Adam) at times, as well as more whimsical moments like Sister Catherine's office (and Sister Catherine) bursting into flames (see screenshot 5). The almost abstract nature of these techniques perhaps chafes with the more "substantial" hallucinations of the imaginary characters.

Words on Bathroom Walls Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Words on Bathroom Walls has a very impressively designed DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. The film has a number of great songs by The Chainsmokers, most of which significantly open up the soundstage, but some of the most memorable elements here are the auditory hallucinations that Adam suffers, which in this surround track do indeed surround the listener with an almost threatening a multi-directional array. (I really kind of wonder what an Atmos track might have done for this particular aspect of the sound design, since it certainly seems like some of the effects are almost vertical even in this mix.) Dialogue as well as Adam's voicover is presented cleanly and clearly without any issues whatsoever. Optional English and Spanish subtitles are available.

Words on Bathroom Walls Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Image Gallery (1080p; 00:35)


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:38)

Words on Bathroom Walls Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Words on Bathroom Walls gets a lot right, and it's bolstered by some generally very effective performances, but I think the film might strike some who actually suffer from some kind of mental illness as papering over the trauma of such an affliction with the very sort of kum-ba-yah schmaltz that Adam (rightly?) makes fun of in one of his confessionals directed squarely at the camera. That qualm aside, those who have liked other "teen battling some kind of health scare while falling in love" films will probably find a lot to like here. Technical merits (especially audio) are solid, and with caveats noted, Words on Bathroom Walls comes Recommended.