Five Movies That Make Us Crazy

From double-checking a locked door five times before walking away to seeing imaginary government agents that hired them to crack codes, actors that portray mental-illness characters in these movies take it to the next level. Characters that suck you in into their complex personalities and get themselves into trouble.

From a serious real-life story like A Beautiful Mind to the lighter and heartwarming As Good As It Gets, you cannot stop watching or try to understand and relate to them in a more personal level. McMurphy still makes me wonder if he was actually supposed to be in a mental institution or if he was lucid the whole time. These five movies let the viewer enter the mind of a character, in a unique way.



As with Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind is Russell Crowe in his prime. John Nash began showing early signs of schizophrenia as he entered graduate school at Princeton and Crowe's eyes simulated perfectly the isolation and anti-social feelings Nash must have been going through during those times. Ed Harris plays the government agent that recruits Nash to look for patterns in newspapers and one of the imaginary people Nash begins to see in a regular basis. Their chemistry is intense and Nash's frustration and fear of the Soviets brings insight into his character and his mind. After almost drowning his child, Nash begins taking anti-psychotics once again and eventually, wins the Nobel Prize for Economics and continues teaching.



Mean, anti-social, (ironically) romantic novelist seeks waitress at nearby diner for constant companionship and to help deal with the existence of other people. Ah, Melvin. Melvin and his plastic silverware follow several of the habits that haunt OCD stricken people around the world on a daily basis: locking doors several times, using a new bar of soap every time they watch their hands, fear of stepping on cracks and germ-infested pets like cute Verdell. Jack Nicholson took this hardened character and shaped him into a person we could relate to. He exposed OCD as a serious illness and helped us understand the hardships and limitations of this disease.

Seen through the eyes of voluntarily admitted Susanna, the film explores the difference between treating the mind vs. the brain and how people are seen as different because they refuse to conform. Susanna joins potential sociopath Lisa (Angelina Jolie) in her antics and explores her own mind through her depression and depersonalization. Winona Ryder surprises with a complex performance of a girl who is confused about who she is, her actions and what the future holds for her.



Who could forget Nurse Ratched? And how McMurphy destroyed her dictatorship after Billy killed himself? This film is filled with social issues, sexual tension and mental illnesses that go beyond biology itself. The power Nurse Ratched had over the patients (most of them voluntary) created a web of insecurity and fear around the mental hospital. McMurphy is a character that becomes more complex that more you watch the movie, never really understanding what his motivation is behind every single one of his actions. Jack Nicholson is genius, never really revealing if McMurphy was indeed sick. Nicholson has yet to fail me. Even when he does romantic comedies like Something's Gotta Give, I still stand behind him because he has done masterpieces like this, The Shining, and others. His great legacy will remain long after he is gone.