Part drama, part dark comedy, the film To the Bone talks about a young woman's struggle with anorexia(厌食症). Though the film has already got generally positive reviews at the Sundance Film Festival, it has caused a hot debate about whether it could be harmful to those with eating disorders.
Critics of the film have focused on the leading role Lily: a thin, young, white woman with anorexia. They think there're some plots that have made eating disorders look like trends instead of life-threatening illnesses. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, anorexia has the highest mortality rate (死亡率) of any mental illness. Thirty million Americans struggle with eating disorders at some point in their life.
Director Marti Noxon based the film on her own battle against anorexia. She was aware of the film's potential to have harmful effects and then tried to be really careful in the way she showed how Lily looked. "You want to help other people understand something that they've never experienced, but you also want people who have experienced it to feel understood and seen," she added. "We are balancing a lot. I want to avoid the idea that the perfectionism of anorexics is their most obvious character. "The film caught the attention of Liana Rosenman, who founded Project HEAL, an organization that helps eating disorder sufferers afford treatment. "I think it is very powerful," Rosenman said. "There is a sense of humor and wisdom in it as well as just understanding what it's like to have an eating disorder. " Project HEAL recently played To the Bone in New York and Los Angeles, but it has faced sharp criticism from members of their community on social media.
