More Scientifically Accurate than it Seems

Rating: 9/10 (22 January 2017)

As a psychology major, I was super excited to see this film. As a fan of James McAvoy, I knew I had to see this movie. And it lived up to my expectations. There's so much we don't know about Dissociative Identity Disorder and so much to be learned. It was cool how this movie explored the disorder. According to what I've learned in school and the research I've done on this disorder, the movie is pretty accurate with science. Some of the movie is hard to believe, and I'm sure part of it was impossible, but people with DID can change the physical chemistry of their body, to some extent. It's true that they can have an allergy to something in one state of being, and not have that allergy in another state. People's adrenaline can make them stronger than they normally would be, so it's possible The Beast could be much stronger than the others. However, I'm not entirely convinced he'd be able to just magically climb walls like it's a rock-climbing wall. You don't just need strength for that, you need support and the wall of the room The Beast was climbing didn't look very climbable. Furthermore, most accounts of DID come from ongoing physical, emotional, or sexual trauma in their past, like with Kevin. Usually there's at least 3 personalities represented: the original, a child, and an angry, sometimes dangerous person. Kevin has all three represented in Kevin, Hedwig, and Dennis, in addition to the other 21 personalities. Sometimes the third personality is based on the patient's abuser. In this movie, however, I think The Beast was an exaggeration of how he saw his mother. She had the power and the strength to hurt him as a boy, represented by Hedwig, so his subconscious took on the role of The Beast. Now, he has the power. He has strength. James McAvoy did phenomenally with this role. The other actors were all right, too, but McAvoy was brilliant. All in all, great movie, but it really depressed me when Casey had to go back and live with her abusive uncle. I suppose that's pretty realistic, but I was really hoping this experience she went through would give her the courage to tell the cops or somebody about what was happening to her. Although, if they weren't listening to her cries for help during school, when she was acting out, perhaps she felt they wouldn't listen to her now.