Written and directed by Marti Noxon, To the Bone is an occasionally harrowing drama geared towards the YA crowd from a filmmaker that knows the terrain well, having written Fright Night and I Am Number Four, as well as TV shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Glee, and Angel. Exploring eating disorders, the film is fronted by a strong performance by Lily Collins as Ellen, a 20-year old artist from an upper middle-class household living with this battle. While the script is occasionally quite frank and knows the territory it’s exploring well, it falls back on the same tropes you’d expect from a network TV series, creating artificial drama and an attempt at a loveably quirky character that derails the entire picture.
After yet another stint in an in-patient hospital, Ellen returns home to Los Angels, living with her step mom Susan (Carrie Preston) and half-sister Kelly (Laiana Liberto) while furiously counting calories and sit-ups. Susan takes her to see Dr. Beckham (Keanu Reeves), a specialist with his own group home; he’s the cold and forbearing doctor who gives her a stock speech about helping her only if she wishes to accept his help. Ellen is so thin her bones are bruising from her constant sit-ups and she agrees to enter into this group home.
While there she encounters a cast of characters ranging from a pregnant women who is force-fed a sack of nutrients totaling 1,500 calories (a fact that Ellen knows from her research), binge-purgers, and Luke (Alex Sharp), a British kid who’s advanced through Beckham’s point system and as his reward is exploring Jonathan Gold’s essential restaurants. He’s quirky and lovable – for the film’s base audience – but an unwelcome cliché and, boy, do we see where this is going. Ellen’s family support system includes her mother Judy (Lili Taylor), a lesbian who abandoned Ellen to live with girlfriend Olive (Brooke Smith). She offers little help to her daughter, opting to go the tough love route in scenes that may be worth more context beyond the family’s group therapy.
To the Bone, a semi-autobiographical film according to Noxon’s introduction at its world premiere, underscores the difficulty of making a somewhat biographical film: information that may be worth exploring, including the quirks and pain inflicted by those that are nearest and dearest, is smoothed out in favor of fictional characters that offer something palatable. The problem is the men in Ellen’s life aren’t terribly interesting. While certain family threads have powerful payoffs, the film’s third act speeds through others, including an eventual conclusion that feels false.
To the Bone, just purchased by Netflix where it will hopefully be seen and offer hope to young men and women dealing with eating disorders, offers a kind of sanitized version of the disorder. Ellen knows the tricks and thankfully, unlike the evil “pro-ana” forums, the film shies away from too much demonstration. What’s missing is an emotional frankness that could have turned this story into one with universal impact. To the Bone is narratively risk-adverse, which is a shame since this is a story worth telling. With its predicable beats, one wishes this drama doubled down on the alarming effects of eating disorders. The film doesn’t make light of them, but it also doesn’t shed much new light on the process of recovery.
To the Bone premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and will be released by Netflix on July 14.
