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Infinitely Polar Bear - film review

A film written and directed by Maya Forbes of Boston and set in the 70s.  It is autobiographical showing the life of a person with bipolar disorder / manic depression.  The protagonist played by Mark Ruffalo is a nervous wreck who is shown to have a high IQ but is completely awkward and borderline alcoholic.

He along with his African American wife are raising two daughters in a Boston neighborhood while being on the poverty line.  Some aspect of the film seemed incongruent but may have been intentional.  For example the family lives on handouts from a great grandmother who has all the money tied in a trust.  But Mark's character Cam is shown always wearing Lacoste brand shirts, which tend to cost in the triple digits.

The wife played by Zoe Saldana also seems to be dressed well regardless of calling out how poor they are in many scenes.  The film has a sort of home movie type feel which was produced by the director's husband.  One of the children (the older sister) is the daughter of the producer and director.

Maya is herself blue blood and was educated at Exeter and Harvard, as in comes from money and that was a theme that is followed in the film.  Cam discloses to his daughters over a chaotic scene how he got thrown out from both Exeter Academy (an elite school in New Hampshire) and then Harvard for being completely out of control.

He is an adoring parent and dotes on his kids inspite of his disabilities and the film tries to show the racial and socioeconomic divide being viewed through the lens of the black mother and white father and the society around them.

Candid and funny but bit long in the tooth.

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