Words on Bathroom Walls

UK Release Date: 06 November 2020

Certification: 12A

Director: Thor Freudenthal

Cast: Devon Bostick, Andy Garcia, Walton Goggins, Beth Grant, Molly Parker, Charlie Plummer, AnnaSophia Robb, Taylor Russell, Lobo Sebastian

Rating: 65%

'If you can't trust your mind, trust your heart.'

Review:

Words on Bathroom Walls is a relatively small movie with a budget of just over $9 million that deals with Schizophrenia and the effects it can have. Schizophrenia is a severe long-term mental health condition that disables a person from being able to distinguish their own thoughts and ideas from reality. And I felt that the movie was able to deal with this condition and difficult subject matter brilliantly by putting it on the big screen and displaying Schizophrenia in a positive light - putting out a strong message: that Schizophrenia is an illness but the person affected is not. I also thought the visualisation of Schizophrenia was great, almost drowning out the thoughts of Charlie Plummer's Adam. 

The performances are most definitely the best part of this movie, they were top notch. Charlie Plummer was terrific in the lead. He's very convincing in the lead displaying every emotion he feels due to his illness absolutely effortlessly. Taylor Russell stars opposite Plummer as Maya and is just as good if not better. She has her own issues to deal with but ultimately puts them aside to support Adam teaching him that love is the cure to his illness. However, it's three more known actors that really shone for me. Andy Garcia is attentive and caring towards Adam and as I've mentioned before I just really love Ocean's Eleven. Walter Goggins seems like the main antagonist at first but in actuality all he wanted was the best for Adam and fought his corner throughout Words on Bathroom Walls which once revealed packed an emotional punch. And Molly Parker put an accurate representation of any mother in that situation, purely loving her son for who he is. 

The three characters inside of Adam's head didn't work for me at all. They were meant to be there for comic relief but they ended being quite annoying and I think the movie would've been better off without them. 

At times Words on Bathroom Walls did move a little slowly. It felt during the middle act that it was doing roughly the same thing over and over again just to fill the run time, throwing in a few unnecessary side plots along the way. Although saying that once the movie reached it's conclusion I was satisfied with the outcome as the movie answered all of it's questions.  

My last complaint is that the movie feels quite predictable for what is a unique premise. It morphs into a typical young adult romance throughout which lead to cheesy dialogue and cringe moments.