Infinitely Polar Bear
Tags: storytelling, home movie

Plot synopsis:
In the late 1970s, Cameron (Cam) Stuart (Mark Ruffalo) is a Boston man suffering from bipolar disorder. He has had a psychotic break, which has caused him to be fired from his job and hospitalized. To be able to afford to take care of their two young children, Cam's wife, Maggie (Zoe Saldana) moves herself and the children to a small rent-controlled apartment, where she struggles to find enough work to support the three of them.
As Cam is rehabilitated, he moves from a halfway house out on his own. Maggie begins to apply to business schools so the family will eventually become more financially secure, for the sake of the children who are attending a third-rate school in a bad part of town. Maggie manages to obtain a scholarship to attend Columbia University, and she asks Cam to take care of their daughters while she moves to New York for 18 months in order to get her M.B.A.. Cam reluctantly agrees.
The girls are embarrassed to live with Cam, who sometimes abandons them in the middle of the night, is aggressively friendly with their neighbors, and starts countless messy projects, making their apartment nearly unlivable. However, his daughters love Cam deeply and try to help him raise them. Cam takes them to visit his grandmother, a wealthy Boston Brahmin who controls the family trust, and who pays the cost of their rent-controlled apartment. After his grandmother tries to give Cam her Bentley, he asks her to instead pay for the girls to be privately educated, but the grandmother refuses.
Maggie begins to near graduation, which Cam hopes will enable them to live like a family once more. However, Cam reveals to Maggie that he has been off his lithium since she left, and Maggie is unable to find a suitable job in Boston. Maggie decides to take a job she has been offered at E. F. Hutton & Co. in New York City, leaving Cam behind in Boston, and taking the girls with her.
Seeing how unhappy the girls will be, and realizing that her new demanding job will force her to work upwards of twelve hours a day, Maggie decides that although she will accept the job, she will leave the children in Boston with Cam, sending money back so that the girls will be able to attend a good private school. A year later the girls are enrolled in private school and Cam continues to take care of them and watch them proudly.

Review: The scenes of his extended family are worth the price of admission alone.Zoe Saldana makes the move possible as she loves everything about Mark Ruffalo that anyone does.
Maya Forbes writes and directs a personal story of bittersweet childhood living in livid conditions with her sister, mother and eccentric bipolar father.
He masters the manic episodes, the frailty, the fears, the hopes, the joys and the underlying deep love for his wife and kids.The kids, one played by Maya Forbes's own daughter, are really adorable and act at a very high calibre.
The title comes from the youngest daughter misnaming her father's condition as "polar bear" - thematically relevant as the overall film is about the two girls learning to accept their father's behaviour beyond their own preconceptions, appreciating what he does do well.
There are a couple of moments in which the girls genuinely seem afraid of what their father might do, but the film never tugs at the full experience of living with someone with mental issues; as others have said, Mark Ruffalo comes off as more an everyday eccentric than a manic depressive.
That said, Ruffalo's performance is the film's best asset, frequently communicating a genuine interest to bond with his daughters and care for them in small, subtle ways.
"Infinitely Polar Bear" (2014 release; 90 min.) brings the story of Cam Stewart (played by Mark Ruffalo) and his family.
into the movie but to tell you more would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.Couple of comments: first, this movie is a labor of love from writer-director Maya Forbes (best known for her work on The Larry Sanders Show).
Third, the four leading acting performances (Ruffalo, Wolodarsky, Zoey Baldana as Maggie, and Ashley Aufderheide as Faith) are all enjoyable, and the interaction between them feels authentic.
'Infinitely Polar Bear' is a very charming Comedic Drama that focuses on Cameron, a manic-depressive father who (after his wife leaves to study in New York) is required to support his two daughters on his own.
Now this is a very small film that many people would not have heard of but with two big leads in Mark Ruffalo and Zoe Saldana, you know that if anything you are going to get really good performances.
This was overall a very dramatic, heartwarming, and at times emotional personal story that does delve into slightly darker tones here and there, as you would expect when it comes to the condition being explored in the film.
Ruffalo did such an incredible job at playing a difficult character with such a complex situation that if there weren't so many other great performances this year he might have snuck in a Best Actor Nom. He was incredibly convincing and portrayed all of the very contrasting elements of this very complex extremely well.
'INFINITELY POLAR BEAR': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five)A comedy-drama flick, about a bipolar dad, struggling to raise his two young daughters; while his wife tries to support their family, in business school.
The film was written and directed by Maya Forbes; and it's based on her own life experiences (as a young girl, with a bipolar father).
The movie stars Mark Ruffalo, Zoe Saldana, Imogene Wolodarsky and Ashley Aufderheide.
Cameron agrees, and then struggles to maintain his sanity; while also trying to be a good father.The film is a great examination of bipolar disease; and how mental illness effects family.
In the late 70's, in Boston, the bipolar Cameron "Cam" Stuart (Mark Ruffalo) lives with his mulatto wife Maggie (Zoe Saldana) and their daughters Amelia (Imogene Wolodarsky) and Faith (Ashley Aufderheide) in an isolated house in the countryside.
Everybody does a decent job in 'Infinitely Polar Bear' except for the screenwriter, who never develops a genuine narrative arc for her film after its brief introduction which depicts the mental breakdown of an ex-Harvard student called Cameron.
This episode is followed by a couple of minutes glossing over the period he spends in institutional care, while his wife Maggie struggles to raise their two young daughters as a single mother.The story begins for real after Cameron is released and starts living in a halfway house in the Boston suburbs.
when is this guy going to get a very well-deserving Oscar?Mark Ruffalo plays a manic depressive husband asked to care for two daughters so that his wife (Zoe Saldana) can get her master's degree in business to support a better life for them.The film has heart, passion, spirit, warmth, and realism ....
This film tells the story of a man with bipolar disorder, who has to take care of two children while having unstable mental state.I find "Infinitely Polar Bear" a realistic and in depth look into the life of a bipolar man.
But there really wasn't much to like about this film.As a previous reviewer said, the way that manic depression is depicted in this movie is too glib.
For the numerous years he has been working in Hollywood, enabling him to live in a nice neighborhood and drive great cars, he is unrecognized by the average person until his stand-out roles are mentioned.In the film Infinitely Polar Bear, Ruffalo has shown his audience he is capable of strong leading roles that can warrant Best Actor nominations.
If you have not, this film portrays only a "glimpse" of what takes place in the life of someone with mental illness, well written by Maya Forbes and portrayed by Ruffalo.Ruffalo deserved an Oscar for this performance.
You hated him at times, felt sorry sometimes but loved him for the sweetness and struggles he had inside.I first really noticed him in Spotlite, but will not forget him watching his under-appreciated performance in Infinitely Polar Bear.
Mark Ruffalo did a great job acting as manic depression suffering father.
Novice Writer-Director Maya Forbes has made a touching film based on her family growing up; which features her bipolar-disorder diagnosed father.
Forbes' "Infinitely Polar Bear" stars Mark Ruffalo as Cam Stuart, a bipolar man from Boston who has two young daughters and is currently semi-separated from his wife Maggie played by Zoe Saldana.
After I saw it, I really admired all the family members' resilience, courage, patience and humor in sticking it out in real life and retelling the story with great encouragement.Director Maya Forbes's daughter Imogene Wolodarsky plays the role of Amelia Stuart, the director herself when she was a child of round 10, growing up with a sister two years of her junior when their parents were already separated.
But he should be very pleased now his loving daughter tell their family story and realistically portrays how we can live and grow with mental illness.
Aliens) creates an unstable movie about manic-depressive and bipolar disorder of a man taking care of two obnoxious kids, 11-year-old Amelia and nine-year-old Faith.
But they are still, a lot of times, nagging him, the movie also falls back into darkness and it was kind of all over the place.The girls nag their mother about getting a job, ask a lot of questions, talk like grown people, and are annoying in their own right, which does not make a likable relationship.I appreciate that Maya Forbes tried to create a good movie about her childhood in 1978 but the directing was weak.
Filmmakers can choose to take the issue very seriously, like co-writer-directors Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland did with Alzheimer's disease in 2014's "Still Alice" (with her performance in the title role winning Julianna Moore the Best Actress Oscar) or just play mental deficiencies for laughs, as the Farrelly brothers and their teams did with the "Dumb and Dumber" movies.
Rarely will a filmmaker attempt to have it both ways, as writer-director Maya Forbes does with her semi-autobiographical comedy-drama "Infinitely Polar Bear" (R, 1:30) – and it's rarer still to meet the challenge with such skill.Mark Ruffalo is Cameron and Zoe Saldana is Maggie, a married Rhode Island couple with two spunky daughters named Faith (Ashley Aufderheide) and Amelia (Imogene Wolodarsky – Forbes' real-life daughter).
(His daughter's mispronunciation of his condition is the basis for the movie's title.) Cameron is a loving husband and father, and most of the time, with the help of his devoted wife, his condition is manageable.
To be honest, there's plenty of anxiety to go around in this situation, but this plan seems to be the best option for the family long-term and Amelia and Faith are old enough to more-or-less take care of themselves, so they all give this plan the old college try."Infinitely Polar Bear" is a small, but entertaining movie with a big message.
Mark Ruffalo as Cameron, born into a wealthy family, living in squalor with his very attractive wife Zoe Saldana as Maggie in Boston is perfect.
The parental roles are reversed a bit when the daughters (played by talented young girls you will simply love) essentially have to babysit their own father a bit, after their mother (convincingly played by the lovely Zoe Saldana) trusted him to take care of them while she has no choice but leave home for a while to try to get a better job that would ensure the little girls a better future (than having to rely on a father who, due to his condition, cannot keep a job for too long).
This movie accurately portrays, with sensitivity, a fictional story about a man suffering from ones of the many forms of bipolar disorder.Mark Ruffalo was amazing for the part.
As a father who has some (mild) emotional illness, watching Infinitely Polar Bear was a moving, uncomfortable, hilarious and lovely experience for me.
Mark Ruffalo stars in "Infinitely Polar Bear" along with Zoe Saldana, Imogene Wolodarsky, and Ashley Aufderheide, from 2014, directed by first-time director Maya Forbes.
Forbes is a very talented woman I hope to be seeing more from as a director - she's already an established writer and producer.The story takes place in Boston in the late 1970s, where Cam Stuart (Ruffalo) lives with his wife Maggie (Saldana) and their children, Amelia and Faith.Cam is bipolar and job problems lead him to a nervous breakdown.
I didn't know what to expect, but I've loved Mark Ruffalo in almost every role, and have recently realized that Zoe Saldana is far more than the "It" girl I thought she was.
During another episode in 1978, his wife Maggie (Zoe Saldana) tries to leave with their daughters Amelia (Imogene Wolodarsky) and Faith (Ashley Aufderheide).
It's a struggle but the kids find minor joy within their father's mental issues.Mark Ruffalo is good and the girls are natural.
Mark Ruffalo, (Cam Stuart) plays a manic depressive father who loves his family very much but his wife Maggie Stuart (Zoe Saldana) finds it hard to deal with his various moods, which cause the family distress.
The chemistry between Saldana and Ruffalo is very realistic and the little girls, Amelia (Imogene Wolodarsky) and Faith (Ashley Aufderheide), are great.
Mark Ruffalo, 48, was brilliant as the doting father, alongside Zoe Saldana, 37, who has starred in huge movies like Avatar, Guardians of the Galaxy, Star Trek and Pirates of the Caribbean.
For her first project, she done a great job by getting some top actors in this well written drama and it'll be good to see what type of movie she will direct next.Budget: $6.7million Worldwide Gross: $1.8millionI recommend this movie to people who are into their drama/romance/comedies starring Mark Ruffalo, Zoe Saldana, Imogene Wolodarsky and Ashley Aufderheide.
We follow Mark Ruffalo (or Bi-polar guy #1 as I like to call him) as he lives his life with his wife and two kids.
There was a short piece in The New Yorker last year that made this one seem like a sureshot; it mentioned, among other things, that when Wes Anderson heard the story of writer/director Maya Forbes's childhood, he told her to forget about everything else and make this movie.
I can see why Forbes cast Mark Ruffalo as her father, Cam, a Boston trust funder who'd been diagnosed as bipolar years before (that's where "polar bear" comes in).
(Forbes got one of her cousins to play a partner in the family brokerage firm who talks with the authentic Back Bay honk; the city of Boston itself is played by Providence, RI, a little less convincingly.) Forbes's daughter Imogene, OTOH, gives a great performance as her mother's 12-year-old self, but Forbes's mother, played by Zoe Saldana, comes across as oddly generic.
Ruffalo is joined by strong performances of Zoe Saldana, Ashley Aufderheide and Imogene Wolodarsky as wife and daughters.
I expect her mother would still have a tough time getting the kind of job she wants: that kind of sexism is still very much with us, equal rights acts notwithstanding.The second reason to see the movie is Mark Ruffalo, who is amazing as the afflicted father, Cameron.
"Infinitely Polar Bear" is one different heart touching film that touches your emotions and it proves that life is a struggle, but made possible thru love and family no matter what kind of cards you've been dealt.
Mark Ruffalo is in top form as Cam a Lacoste polo wearing shirt a dad who's bi polar and he's recovering from a nervous manic breakdown and his wife the smart and sexy Maggie(Zoe Saldana)enters an out of state college to get her masters degree in hopes of building a better life for all involved.
Mark Ruffalo is supposed to play a manic-depressive father but to me he is just an eccentric person in this role.
Cam (Mark Ruffalo) loves his two daughters and his estranged wife, Maggie (Zoe Saldana), in 1978.
Writer/director Maya Forbes obviously feels quite passionately about the subject of manic depression, and I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the depiction of it in "Infinitely Polar Bear" is based on some personal experience.
Mark Ruffalo plays the parent struggling with mental illness, caring for his two daughters while his wife and their mother relocates temporarily from Boston to New York to go to school.
Mark Ruffalo and Zoe Saldana as her on screen father and mother respectively, while her character as a 12 year old girl was played by her own daughter.
I think it was a great team, the mother is the director, the daughter performing under her, the father producing it and it is their story.I was worried that this film's going to emotionally hurt me as I'm an easy target to strike with a theme like this as what the synopsis says and the trailer revealed.
But I was prepared for that, I wanted to have a tearjerker flick and in the end, I had a great time with it as the fulfillment was way beyond than what I was expected.It was the story of a small family, a father and a mother and their two little girls that set in the 1978 Bostan city.
Overall, it will surely transform your mood by the end of the movie, I mean in a good way.Inspiring, yes the film inspires to have our own little family with kids.
This has to be one of the best Mark Ruffalo's performances and the director Maya Forbes has done a great job.
With Ruffalo on winning form, his supported well by child actors Imogene Wolodarsky and Ashley Aufderheide who are more than up to the task of matching Ruffalo's antics while poor old Zoe Saldana doesn't get a whole lot to do as the trying hard mother of the trio Maggie.While there's absolutely nothing earth shattering about Infinitely Polar Bear, it's by the very definition of the word a feel good tale that would be impossible to watch without a smile on your face.
It's based in the late seventies when people were a lot more liberal.The father (Mark Ruffalo) suffers from depression but the wife (Zoe Saldana) tries to put up with him because his a good person.
"My father was diagnosed manic-depressive in 1967."Maya Forbes's debut film received a lot of praise when it was released at TIFF last year, especially for Mark Ruffalo's lead portrayal of a father undergoing a bipolar disorder.
INFINITELY POLAR BEAR 7/7/15Written and directed by Maya Forbes, INFINITELY POLAR BEAR is based on autobiographical reminiscences of family life in late 1970's Boston, where she and her sister were being raised by a manic-depressive father, while their mother studied for an MBA degree in NYC at Columbia University with the intent of returning in 18 months, equipped with credentials and the hope of myriad job opportunities in order to support the household.
Since this film is based on a "true" story, I accepted the notion that his wife Maggie, played by Zoe Saldana - a beautiful presence - after consulting Cameron's psychiatrist - allows her daughters to be in the care of someone who is so on the edge of falling off the thin, taut line of sanity.The children, Amelia ( a feisty performance by Director Forbes' daughter Imogene Wolodarsky) and Faith ( Ashley Aufderheide - I loved every scene she was in) become their father's keeper/caretaker and lifeline to the world; children who have the ability and sensitivity to decipher social cues, exhibiting a maturity and awareness of reality that their Dad rebuffs and repudiates.
(Flash Review)Ruffalo plays a bi-polar man who has two young kids with a mother and they battle trying to live as a single family unit.
She leaves them in Boston as she goes to New York on an 18-month program to get her MBA.Most of the movie is about the trials Cam and the girls have, living together in a small, often messy place, with Cam doing the best he could to be a good father and mother.
It's more about a good man, who is trying to cope, live and take responsibility for his family with his manic depression the best way he knows how.