Hollywood is making another attempt at bringing Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) to light with a new movie helmed by Bridesmaids star Kristen Wiig.
In Welcome to Me, Wiig plays a character, Alice, who suffers from Borderline Personality Disorder. After winning the lottery, Alice spends her winnings on a cable access talk show about herself. Alice’s obsession with fame and overbearing personality leads to her alienating her friends and family.
The movie, which just started production and is scheduled to be released in 2014, also stars James Marsden, Joan Cusack, Wes Bentley, Linda Cardellini, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tim Robbins, and Alan Tudyk.
The movie is billed as a dramatic comedy, and it remains to be seen how the symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder will be portrayed in the movie. One can hope that the movie more accurately portrays someone living with BPD than previous movies, such as Fatal Attraction or Single White Female, which tend to portray women with BPD as vindictive and murderous.
How do you feel about a movie that specifically has a character diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
2 Comments
Kristen Wiig is a master at portraying weird females; let’s hope her portrayal of Borderline Personality Disorder is not strictly for laughs – but also used as a way of educating the public. There is a distinction between higher and lower functioning BPD …and there are not a lot of laughs in to be found with a self-mutilating suicidal bulimic alcoholic… But on the “higher functioning side,” they’re quite intelligent – and if you’re not on the receiving end of their dysfunctional relationships … entertaining?
I just finished watching this movie. Two hours ago, I was a huge Kristin Wiig fan. As a person with Borderline, I was hoping that this would be, well, funny, since it is billed as a comedy, and at the very least, not demeaning. Nope. I didn’t laugh once, and the movie plays into all of the stereotypes that make this diagnosis embarrassing. I am appalled. Worst movie ever.
Even putting aside my personal problems with the way Borderline is portrayed, this movie was not funny, not interesting, the plot sounded good in previews but was not in reality, and this movie was a horrible disappointment. Two thumbs down. Way down.