Review of Words on Bathroom Walls

I ended up seeing this film over the weekend, not knowing what to expect, as it is one of the few films that I have gone to see without actually seeing the trailer for it prior, and I was very pleasantly surprised. Words on Bathroom Walls is about a boy, Adam, who gets kicked out of his school for wild behavior, and is diagnosed with schizophrenia shortly after that. He transfers to a Cathlolic school and meets a girl, Maya, who helps him out with school work, and also becomes quite close with him. Throughout the film, Adam tries to maintain a relationship with Maya, while also trying to keep his schizophrenia a secret from her, and has to overcome many other challenges along the way. This film, based on the book that goes by the same name, does a fantastic job at accurately depicting schizophrenia, and all of the complications that come along with it. The film puts the viewers inside of Adam's head for much of the movie, and shows them everything that he hears and sees because of the disease, and really makes the audience think that it is all really there. The actor who plays Adam, Charlie Plummer, also does a fantastic job. The film itself does commit to many of the typical tropes that you would see in a coming of age movie, but it does a much better job than most films do at depicting mental illness. Adams' mom, and step-father, who are played by Molly Parker, and Walton Goggins also do a really great job, delivering some very emotional performances. The thing that surprised me most in this film was the special effects, especially given the film's small budget. A lot of the schizophrenic hallucinations are shown through special effects, and they effectively add a lot of tension and horror elements to the film, which is not something you see very often in a teenage coming of age film. One other thing worth mentioning is the director, Thor Freudenthal, who hadn't really directed any feature films since the early 2010s. Some of his earlier films included, Hotel For Dogs, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid, so I would have to say that this is definitely a significant improvement over his previous works. Overall, for a typical coming of age film, this movie does a great job at what it is trying to do. Not only is it a good coming of age film, but it also does an amazing job at depicting mental illness, especially one that is as complex as schizophrenia. The entire cast does a great job in their roles, and the story is very compelling. The only real issues that I had with the film, which are very minor problems, would be that there was some poorly timed humor on a few occasions. Other than that though, a very solid film by Freudenthal.