Adam is one such individual which creates less strain within the film than you’d expect, but we’ll get to the depiction of medicine shortly.

So what “happy” looks like for one may be something drastically different for another, especially in cases where someone is treatment resistant, meaning that their body doesn’t respond at all to a medication. By the way, the use of quotes before matters because Walton’s story goes out of its way to point out that which many may not realize regarding schizophrenia: there is currently not a cure-all. This is important to signal so early on because the places Words eventually goes to need to possess a semblance of hope to make it more palatable.

From the plucky music, vocal delivery of dialogue from Charlie Plummer’s Adam, set design, and cinematography, Words is far more Love, Simon than it is One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Courtesy of LD Entertainment and Roadside Attractions.įrom the first shot of Words, you know that the story is going to have a “happy” ending. Instead, it places the audience right with Adam, offering an honest glimpse of what this illness is like to live with.Ĭharlie Plummer as Adam Petrazelli in WORDS ON BATHROOM WALLS. Words on Bathroom Walls never opts to condescend or offer superficial/magical healing. Most importantly, it never makes light of Adam or his journey through the mental health process. In its own way, the film seeks to normalize that which scares many, challenging the audience to consider why it’s ok to rally behind some conditions but not others. Adapted for the big screen by Nick Naveda ( Say You Will) and directed by Thor Fruedenthal ( Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters), Words on Bathroom Walls is a surprisingly touching, often hilarious, grounded story of what it’s like to live with the illness. “Words on Bathroom Walls” offers an astonishingly frank presentation of schizophrenia within a YA package.Īuthor Julia Walton’s 2017 young adult novel Words on Bathroom Walls centers on Adam Petrazelli, a high school senior whose dreams of culinary school seem destined for tragedy soon after he’s diagnosed with schizophrenia. Home › Reviews › In Theaters › “Words on Bathroom Walls” offers an astonishingly frank presentation of schizophrenia within a YA package.

Words on Bathroom Walls by Julia Walton