Canvas

The movie's plot was true-to-life so much so that it was hard for me to watch the despair happening to this family I knew that there was no ending to it. I was some years ago, an RN supervisor at one of the State Mental hospitals in Florida....I was surprised that the location of the movie at one of Florida's State Mental Hospitals. Some viewers didn't like the ending. The ending isn't "they lived happy ever after". You deal with the disease forever. Marcia Gay Harden did a wonderful in her part but the little boy did even better. And the boss' son was the big bully at school ...

I have to admit that it was hard for me to watch this movie. A little seven-year-old girl somehow found our family many years ago. When we learned that her mom suffered from schizophrenia we told her that whenever her mom was off her medicine, and she didn't make a meal, this little girl should come to our house and we'd feed her. Over the years, she also slept at our house many times. Her last day of high school she ate breakfast with our kids and said she was really going to miss those times as part of our family. [She, now successful in her work, still is an important part of our family over a decade later.] As I watched this movie, it was like watching our unofficial daughter's experience all over again.I don't think I need to say more about the authenticity of this movie. I just wish we'd had this movie when this little girl was still ten. It would have helped two ways: it would have helped her to know that other kids had to deal with the same kind of mother as she, and it would have helped her to open up to us in healthy ways so we could counsel her in ways to cope. It is extremely difficult for a child to know they should (and do) love a mother that acts irrationally. Every child who has a schizophrenic parent should see this movie; all the better if he or she sees it with an adult who is capable of counseling the child.

I discovered this little gem when led to it due to other purchases in asimilar vein. This is a story based on the directors experiences as aboy growing up in a home with a schizophrenic mother. He also wrote thescreenplay over a ten year period, and it is his first full length film.(I watched the directors commentary after viewing the film 5 times overa 6 week period. The cast is excellent all around, especially the father,Joe Pantoliano, who is trying to cope with his wife's illness, the highmedical bills, and his son's anxiety about his mother and the socialpressures he has to endure from peers, particularly his father's boss'son, who he eventually beats up, costing his father his job. The pointof the film is how the father and son cope and eventually come to termswith the mother's illness.The son, 11, played by Devon Gearhart, gives an incredibly nuanced per-formance for a child actor. The film is largely seen through his eyes,and he is so real and normal, it seems at times like a documentary. Thecinematography is beautiful, mostly filmed in Hollywood, Florida. Themusic is wonderful (wish there was a CD), and despite the heavy subjectmatter, there is much humor and good happy moments to balance it out.This movie deserves a much larger audience. It won many audience awardsat film festivals in 2006. I own about 300 DVD's, and as "little" filmsgo, this has become my all-time favorite. Do yourself a favor and rentit, or better yet, buy it. I'm betting you won't be sorry.

I never, well rarely cry when I see a sad movie or touching movie this movie here touched me I held back the tears as much as I could. There is this one scene where the wife MGH character has a break down and you see the look on the kids face and there are so many other scenes like that in this movie. MGH did a beautiful job portraying a mentally ill individual and its really hard to do that I like this movie I think I will keep it.

I almost didn't see this film. I just tuned it in on Cablevision Movies on Demand. Oscar winner (for "Pollock") Marcia Gay Harden gives a bravura performance as Mary, the wife and mother who had suffered a psychotic break about 18 months before this story begins, and whose denial that she needs continuing medical help has begun tolead her once again into bizarre behavior and paranoid delusions, to the extent that she's finally removed from her home by the local police, who have been there many times before. But Harden's portrayal is so nuanced that we can see the loving wife and mother and the scared person inside. As Mary's frustrated, but fiercly protective and loving husband John, Joey Pantoliano is first-rate. I know I've seen him in a lot of other things, but this was the film that made me realize exactly how good he is.But Mary's illness is only part of the story. When she's hospitalized (and in the scene where John and son Chris first go to the psychiatric ward to see a heavily sedated Mary, Harden is heartbreaking), a new relationship has to be forged between Chris, who has been taunted at school about his "crazy" parents, and John, who is seriously worried about being able to pay Mary's mounting medical bills.To me, this film is less about schizophrenia as it is about family and love, and the human connections that redeem us no matter what's happening on the outside. There is a lot of love in this film.If you haven't seen Canvas, you should.EDIT: There should be a soundtrack for this film, but I haven't been able to find it. Joel Goodman's score is worth hearing, and there are a couple of gorgeous songs sung by Lisbeth Scott.

Good quality original dvd arrived on time.

This is another one of those stories that will pull at your heart strings. It is a story that could be happening right now, we just don't know about it. Marcia Gay Harden is very believable in her roll and her husband played by Joe Pantoliano is extremely good in his roll as her husband. The movie deals with Schizophrenia and how it can affect a family. I felt that it was an amazing film and have watched it several times and take something new out of it each time I watch it. I should mention that Devon Gearhart was excellent as their son.

Looks as in advertising. Reasonable price for dvd 6.99. Good movie. Represents mental health well.