Only nuanced portrayal of manic-depression

Rating: 10/10 (30 July 2017)

As someone who has been manic-depressive my entire life, an inheritance from the Sherman side of the family, I was delighted to finally see a portrayal of it, particularly of the depressive side, as a condition, not a disease. The spoiler here is that it is depressive side (sadness) which helps Riley find herself. Our depressive side is the root of our greater compassion and sympathy; It is when we are sad that we best hear the sadness of others. Our manic side is the root of our greater energy to solve problems, heedless of the risk to ourselves; it is when we are ecstatic that we dare to end the cause of the sadness of others.
The world needs manic-depressives and would be a far worse place without them. What manic-depressives need more than anything else is family and community to ease the high and lows, but to emphasize that would be to treat manic-depression, not as a disease seeking a cure, but as a condition needing the nurture of a home, as this movie does.