‘Words on Bathroom Walls’ review: A big take on schizophrenia

It’s difficult to categorize the massive screen adaptation of “Words on Bathroom Walls,” Julia Walton’s novel about a teenager’s wrestle with mental sickness, as the film by itself can’t determine if it is a really serious drama about an sick adolescent, a darkish, edgy psychological romp, or an off-kilter rom-com. Composed by Nick Naveda and directed by Thor Freudenthal, it can take some massive swings at a massive issue and almost — not fairly — pulls it off.

That the film comes as close to succeeding as it does is in huge element because of to a prime flight solid executing amazing perform zipping in between a number of tones — in some strategies reflecting the illness at its centre, schizophrenia. Naveda’s script and director Freudenthal make some bold selections, most of which perform but have a cumulative outcome that weakens the in general impact of the narrative.

Charlie Plummer stars as Adam Petrazelli, a younger gentleman with a massive mystery. For yrs, he has battled his demons by way of cooking and gotten so excellent he’s been recognized to a culinary arts institute. Now, he just requirements to graduate significant school, which results in being more difficult when he’s expelled just after his first psychotic crack poorly injures a classmate.

Adam initially hears just voices, but these eventually manifest into men and women he can see. There is Joaquin (Devon Bostick), a lusty half-bare wastrel who urges Adam to stick to his id the Bodyguard (Lobo Sebastian), a baseball-bat-brandishing, sweatsuit-donning meathead who just wants Adam to give him the phrase so he can unleash some rage and Rebecca (AnnaSophia Robb), a Zen sprite who actually features Adam some decent advice in her quest to get him to chill out.

These hallucinatory figures, coupled with Adam addressing an unseen therapist and his visits to a priest (a soulful Andy Garcia) when he transfers to a Catholic school, give these scenes a sardonic edge. As the mood darkens, Freudenthal sprinkles in horror-motion picture model visual outcomes to embody the terror Adam encounters, pulling the film in however an additional path.

Teenage schizophrenia is no joke and a darkish, surreal Lynchian comedy would have been a tall get, which could be why the other sections of the motion picture participate in it so straight. There are weighty moments of melodrama involving Adam’s established mom Beth (Molly Parker) and her stay-in boyfriend Paul (Walton Goggins) as they check out to get Adam the aid he requirements and enroll him in the new school so he can graduate.

At St. Agatha’s, Adam meets and falls for Maya (a terrific Taylor Russell of “Waves”), a valedictorian-to-be with many side hustles to spend her tuition. Tutoring turns into anything more as the two younger leads have excellent chemistry and would make fine associates in a intimate comedy — territory “Words” veers into when Adam discovers that his super-really serious classmate’s most loved motion picture is “Never Been Kissed.”

Regrettably, all people has to return to the reality of Adam’s sickness and which is a incredibly darkish (if extremely stylized) position. Person scenes perform effectively, but the tonal shifts begin to put on as the film reaches its climax. The solid, specially Plummer, navigates the diverging paths effectively, but the style confusion leaves very little home for the motion picture to maneuver.

Although the film by no means mocks or condescends, the ending is trite bordering on glib. It’s a pretty wild trip but provided the bigger stakes than your regular YA title, it feels considerably less than satisfactory.