Infinitely Polar Bear (2014 Sundance; 2015 wide release)
R
3.5 Stars out of 5
Director Maya ForbesWriter Maya Forbes
Cinematography Bobby Bukowski
Mark Ruffalo Cam Stuart
Zoe Saldana Maggie Stuart
Imogene Wolodarsky Amelia Stuart
Ashely Aufderheide Faith Stuart
Writer/Director Maya Forbes grew up in a family beset with a
problem: manic depression. Her father suffered from this disorder, and as a consequence,
so did his family. The wild swings in mood from severe depression to uncontrollable
exuberance on the part of her father almost certainly had a telling effect on
young Maya and her sister. Now an adult and a film maker, she sought to tell a
fictionalized version of her youth, even employing her own daughter in the role
of the fictionalized family’s elder daughter. One might presume there could be
defects in Forbes movie with respect to dramatic tension, plot pacing, acting
or directing, but verisimilitude should be something Forbes would likely be
well prepared to present. One might presume that, but in my opinion, one would
be disappointed.
“Infinitely Polar Bear” is Forbes’ movie on that topic of
manic-depression and its effects on a family that has the father expressing
that problem. The father is Cam Stuart (Mark Ruffalo). He is the offspring of a
wealthy New England family, though for reasons not entirely clear to me, he is penniless.
His financial situation does not stem from his wild behavior; behavior which is
quickly exhibited in the movie’s opening scene as he tries to take his two
girls, Amelia (Imogene Wolodarsky – Forbes’ daughter) and Faith (Ashely
Aufderheide) on a winter time bicycle ride. The girls are freezing and worried
about their father’s manic behavior – behavior made all the worse as he is
dressed only in bright red undershorts. Their mother, Maggie (Zoe Saldana)
arrives on the scene and gathers the girls into their soon to be locked car.
They stare in fear out the car’s windows as their father becomes further
unhinged. He is soon taken away by an ambulance.
The movie jumps forward a couple of years when Cam is
released from the hospital where he has been recovering. His recovery is slow
and almost as frightening to the girls as his previous erratic behavior. The
younger child Faith refers to his bi-polar disorder as “polar bear” giving the
film its title and underscoring how confusing such a disorder would be to a
child witnessing one of their parents transition from warm, loving and trustworthy
to scary and completely unreliable. Cam will slowly move into the outside world
and seek to re-unite with his wife and family, but he has lost the trust (though
not the love) of Maggie; they will live apart until she can trust him once
more.
Their previously fraught financial situation has not
surprisingly worsened. Cam cannot work and can only barely care for the girls
while Maggie works. This situation is intolerable. Maggie will seek to return
to school to earn an advanced degree in business, hoping with the new degree to
improve their finances. The plot demands that she be in New York for school
while Cam and the girls remain behind in Boston (somewhat under Cam’s care).
This situation too is bad, but the movie portrays it as passable. The girls
will learn to accept their father’s limitations and learn to fend in some ways
for themselves. Their mother will return in time and life will begin anew, or
somewhat so.
The story is emotionally wrenching if one places oneself
into the role of an 8 or 10 year child watching the foundations of their world
start to fall apart. It is certain this movie is centered on Cam and Ruffalo’s portrayal
of him, but it is the girls that give this movie its heart. Ruffalo will bring
the same high intensity performance he used in 2015’s Oscar winner for Best
Picture, “Spotlight”. Oddly I found his performance as a manic depressive to be
more over the top than his “wound too tight” reporter in “Spotlight”. But where
is the balance between such fictional characters with their given personalities
and emotional states vs. an actor’s depiction of those states? For me, Ruffalo’s
performance of a man losing his connections to the church and friends that he
grew up with in that church, even as he pursues an investigation that depicts
those friends and church in a very bad light was a performance that seemed dead
on. Ironically, his performance in “Polar Bear” seems to be just exactly that,
a performance.
An additional complication for me in Ruffalo’s performance
is the absence of the second half of manic depression: the depression phase.
The movie shows on multiple times the manic phase and a few cases where Cam is
under a reasonable level of control. An argument could be made that the lithium
carbonate that Cam is supposed to be taking following his hospital stay has the
whole condition under control. Clearly this is not the case as he admits to not
taking the drug (all too common, evidently). Lacking the depression phase of
his disorder, Cam’s character lacks much pathos and seems to be simply someone “high
on life”. It does not come across on the screen as a person tortured by his
psychology. It seems unreal medically and is a major flaw from a dramatic point
of view.
What does work and why I generally enjoyed this film are the
two girls. Their confusion and pain is there for the world to see and to relate
to. Their mother may make a decision that borders on the absolutely
unbelievable (i.e. leaving them in the care of someone not fit to care for them
for weeks at a time); their father’s character may seem like more of an
irresponsible cad as much as someone suffering from a debilitating mental
disorder; but regardless of the veracity of Cam’s problem or the mother’s odd
career choices, these are two young girls in pain and at great personal risk.
The writing of their plight and the two young actresses playing their parts are
the reasons I recommend this movie; though I do so with some reservations.
