Great Film overall

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

My wife and I were very interested in watching this, but when we got the DVD, it sat for more than a month, primarily because we thought this was going to be relentlessly depressing, and we weren't up for it. My wife decided to forego seeing it, but I wanted to give it a shot.I'm glad I did. I thought it was a very interesting look at Mariel and the rest of the Hemingway family. Thankfully, this had a much lighter touch than I had expected. Sure, it's not like watching an episode of Saturday Night Live, but it's also not relentlessly depressing. I think the key to whether or not you will like this film is how you feel about Mariel Hemingway. She, herself says in the film that people who watch her movies think they know all about her, but they really don't. I guess that's true, but I've always thought Mariel is humble and down-to-earth, and that's how I think she is shown in this documentary as well. If you don't think that about her, then you probably won't like it.The interesting part of this documentary is it intertwines footage from an unfinished documentary that older sister Margaux was working on about her famous grandfather Ernest. Of course, Margaux succumbed to what is referred to in the movie as the, "Hemingway gene," and this is all that we'll probably see from what she was working on.

Mariel Hemingway could have done a little less about herself in this. I do get that she wanted to show her life, and how she deals with a family legacy of mental illness and suicide. But whoever had creative control on this, could have edited that down. A lot. Whether it was her or Barbara Kopple the director, the point of healthy living was made early on. But nonetheless it was an important Documentary from the perspective of suicide awareness, with a deeply personal look on what the triggers were in her immediate family. My take on this though, is that her success prevents any triggers that could lead her down the same slope that her sister Margaux went down. Healthy living helps, but it doesn't insulate you from the curve-balls life throws you. She's not out of the woods, nor will she ever be. I myself have a family legacy of mental illness, and I know this to be true. She needs to be applauded as its very hard to seek help, especially if you come from a headstrong family. I hope anyone with similar histories, gets the same thing out of it that I got. Which is that helplessness against these feelings, is not a self fulfilling prophecy. But she neglected the preventative solutions. We can get help. Its as easy as picking up a phone. Sometimes its easier to talk to a stranger about it, than someone who knows you on a suicide hot line. I just wish this documentary had stated that.

Though the last 10 minutes or so, which deal with Mariel Hemingway's suicide-prevention activism and participation in a walkathon, are quite touching, this unfocused documentary bogs down badly for the 90 minutes that come before. What it shows is a wealthy, white, bourgeois, deeply screwed up family of American WASPs—but if that's mental illness, then 80% of the Republican party is mentally ill. Alcoholism, drug abuse, unhappy marriages, neglected children, allegations of sex abuse and the completely typical attendant family dramas about who is lying about that abuse and who is refusing to acknowledge the truth may have a certain soap-operaish, staring-at- a-train-wreck appeal, but they are connected to the topic of mental illness and suicide by only the flimsiest of threads. The film is uncomfortable to watch because much of its "realness" is presented without context or analysis. When Mariel visits her oldest sister, Joan (Muffet), who is semi- institutionalized, Joan is clearly suffering symptoms of tardive dyskinesia brought about by long-time use of anti-psychotics. The fact that the two women giggle and reminisce as if things were perfectly normal but with no mention of Joan's condition is simply gruesome. Nor is there any commentary regarding Mariel's bizarre, exploitative decision to visit her sister after not having seen her for more than a year, apparently solely so she can film the encounter for the documentary. Scenes of Mariel's interactions with her husband who is – let's be honest about it – a cruel, sexist, abusive jerk, only underscore the extent to which the film's material is undigested; there's something both disturbing and naive about the idea that depicting emotional pain is the same as having insight into it. Unhappy families may experience unhappiness each in their own way, but there's very little in this film to hint that members of the Hemingway clan have learned much about coping with theirs.

I am a fan of Barbara Kopple's films and this is not one of her best. I'm not sure I would even call it a documentary. It's more like a self-help / memoir video. As such, it was very fitting that it had it's television premiere on OWN, where it was called a docudrama. To some that may seem a small distinction but to anyone who truly appreciates good documentaries it's huge.This is Mariel Hemingway's story of the many years and many paths she's been on to find that something or someone who makes her feel loved, protected and okay as a human being. "Crazy"......not so much. WASP protected, never spoken of lives of great sadness and depression despite "having it all".....you bet. I am not saying mental illness does not exist in the Hemingway gene pool but that really isn't what this film is about. It's about Mariel's quest for spiritual healing and fulfillment. Part of which is the very admirable public speaking that she does to put a public face on illness and depression few wish to acknowledge within their own families.By far, the most absorbing pieces of this film are those that are about Margaux. Margaux's own documentary footage is used extensively and it is the only portion of the film that truly captures our attention. She speaks from the place of someone who has great insight into herself and her family. Even her body language is extraordinary in what it reveals about what she knows to be true. I'm sorry to say that Mariel does not come across with that same depth of knowledge despite the years of searching.The most revealing portions of the film pertain to truths Mariel has apparently yet to acknowledge. One is that her first husband has a cameo, out of nowhere, and appears to be having a coded conversation with her about how maintaining control has been her one big must in life lest she end up dead like 7 other family members and yet she has a tendency to inappropriately give that control away to others. Two is that her boyfriend sure looks to me like he is controlling, manipulative and openly disdainful of her. And the obvious-o-meter goes ding,ding,ding!