Prozac Nation, based on Elizabeth Wurtzel’s bestselling memoir of depression during college, details a Harvard student’s experience of depression.  Christina Ricci stars as Wurtzel, a writer who almost immediately becomes known for her music journalism when she starts college.  She becomes depressed when she can’t write and enters into psychiatric treatment.  Therapy helps some but relationship problems persist and she eventually begins to take Prozac.  She recovers but feels she has an uncertain future.

Even though the film was originally made in 2001, it wasn’t released theatrically in America at all and only received release on DVD in 2005.  There are some real strengths in the film but ultimately it is easy to see why Miramax kept it shelved for so long.  Ricci is convincing as a disturbed young woman (she cuts herself, uses drugs and alcohol impulsively, and clings to relationships too tightly) and the supporting cast, including Michelle Williams as her best friend and Jessica Lange as her mother, is also good.  Erik Skjoldbjaerg’s film lacks direction, though, and really lacks an ending.  The distributor reportedly reedited the film a number of times and it is possible that the original ending has been lost.  The film is recommended as an accurate portrayal of psychopathology, specifically borderline personality disorder, but is of less interest to the general moviegoer.  ☆ ☆.

MJM  08-10-2012