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The kindness of strangers
Insight
The film’s humorous intent remains uncertain. With sudden ugly violence, it lurches uneasily between hardscrabble noir and black comedy of the slapstick ‘hide the corpse’ genre, with Eddie Marsan’s venal undertaker and John Turturro playing just a bit too much for laughs. Good black comedy mixes horror with the absurd, creating exceptional work such as Fargo or Man Bites Dog, where you can’t quite believe you laughed at something so monstrous or taboo. I heard laughter in the cinema when I sent to see God’s Pocket, but I sensed an audience unsure if they were supposed, or allowed, to laugh.
However, one of the most unequivocally powerful things about this film is its aesthetic. Everything is faded and dirty from sweat and breath. Everything is badly made and overused. And perhaps the uneasy tension in this film is how it tempts the outsider to stereotyping and prejudice, both within the film and outside it. Shellburn’s public sentimentalisation of the people of this working class district—“…dirty-faced, uneducated, neat as a pin inside…”—turns out, in the end, to be a terrible, fatal error.
Tania Glyde
For most, June 14, 2008, was just a normal day. For Jonny Benjamin, it was the day he decided that he no longer wanted to live. A month earlier, Jonny had been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, but had discharged himself from the hospital where he was receiving treatment. As Jonny stood on the edge of Waterloo Bridge in London, contemplating suicide, a stranger took the time to stop, talk, and provided words of hope to prompt his recovery. The documentary Finding Mike, released in association with the charity Rethink Mental Illness, follows Jonny on his mission to find this stranger. At times, the viewer is alone with Jonny as he talks to a web camera, including his expression of worry about the start of the campaign: “I’m scared if something comes out wrong, or what if they don’t like me!” On the sixth anniversary of his suicide attempt, Jonny begins a hectic campaign of television and radio interviews, and uses social media with the hashtag #findMike to find the man who had saved him and to say thank you. He returns to Waterloo Bridge to hand out leaflets, saying to passers by, “I’m trying to find a man who changed my life.” As expected, many walk on, but many people also stop to listen, talk, and even share their own experience with mental health (or humorous comments such as, “you look better than you do on the telly!”). This campaign becomes global, with people from South Africa, Mexico City, and Australia promoting his cause; Jonny is inundated with messages of support and from people who have been diagnosed or affected by mental ill-health. The twin sister of a person who died by suicide contacts and meets with Jonny to speak about her unanswered questions. This moment is fraught with slight nervousness to begin with, but once they start to talk Jonny’s open tone is refreshing and helps the sister
www.thelancet.com/psychiatry Vol 1 September 2014
with an insight into what her brother might have been feeling. After a week, the momentum of the campaign declines and Jonny become deflated and returns to his daily routine. He then receives an email from someone claiming to be Mike. Jonny is filled with conflicting emotions; although he is excited to see the man that saved him, he is also overwhelmed and at times breaks down in tears as he realises has to go back to the place that was “the worst point in [his] life.” They meet. As soon as Jonny sees Mike (who is actually called Neil), all the hazy memories of that day become clear and he can finally say thank you and gain closure on that event in his life. The cinematography reflects this positive change: early shots of people walking on the bridge are eerily gloomy and seem to be underwater, whereas after Jonny achieves his goal of thanking his saviour, the water becomes lighter as he is overjoyed and no longer in that dark place. An important outcome from this campaign, greatly highlighted in the documentary, is the effect of people openly talking about mental illness. Jonny admits that 6 years ago he was in such a dark place that “you isolate yourself”. Since 2008, he has felt suicidal again, but he can now admit to how he is feeling and say the words “I’m feeling suicidal” to seek help. “That is the difference and what I couldn’t say before”. This documentary could help the one in 200 people who are affected by schizoaffective disorder, or indeed any mental health issue, not only to speak out openly but also to know where to find or ask for help.
Rethink Mental Illness
The kindness of strangers
Finding Mike Produced by Postcard Productions in association with Rethink Mental Illness, 2014 London To watch the documentary see https://www.youtube.com/channel/ UCUV4CIFE1LYWvNpEuVJLKdg For more on Rethink Mental Illness see https://www.rethink.org
Francesca Towey
267
The film’s humorous intent remains uncertain. With sudden ugly violence, it lurches uneasily between hardscrabble noir and black comedy of the slapstick ‘hide the corpse’ genre, with Eddie Marsan’s venal undertaker and John Turturro playing just a bit too much for laughs. Good black comedy mixes horror with the absurd, creating exceptional work such as Fargo or Man Bites Dog, where you can’t quite believe you laughed at something so monstrous or taboo. I heard laughter in the cinema when I sent to see God’s Pocket, but I sensed an audience unsure if they were supposed, or allowed, to laugh.
However, one of the most unequivocally powerful things about this film is its aesthetic. Everything is faded and dirty from sweat and breath. Everything is badly made and overused. And perhaps the uneasy tension in this film is how it tempts the outsider to stereotyping and prejudice, both within the film and outside it. Shellburn’s public sentimentalisation of the people of this working class district—“…dirty-faced, uneducated, neat as a pin inside…”—turns out, in the end, to be a terrible, fatal error.
Tania Glyde
For most, June 14, 2008, was just a normal day. For Jonny Benjamin, it was the day he decided that he no longer wanted to live. A month earlier, Jonny had been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, but had discharged himself from the hospital where he was receiving treatment. As Jonny stood on the edge of Waterloo Bridge in London, contemplating suicide, a stranger took the time to stop, talk, and provided words of hope to prompt his recovery. The documentary Finding Mike, released in association with the charity Rethink Mental Illness, follows Jonny on his mission to find this stranger. At times, the viewer is alone with Jonny as he talks to a web camera, including his expression of worry about the start of the campaign: “I’m scared if something comes out wrong, or what if they don’t like me!” On the sixth anniversary of his suicide attempt, Jonny begins a hectic campaign of television and radio interviews, and uses social media with the hashtag #findMike to find the man who had saved him and to say thank you. He returns to Waterloo Bridge to hand out leaflets, saying to passers by, “I’m trying to find a man who changed my life.” As expected, many walk on, but many people also stop to listen, talk, and even share their own experience with mental health (or humorous comments such as, “you look better than you do on the telly!”). This campaign becomes global, with people from South Africa, Mexico City, and Australia promoting his cause; Jonny is inundated with messages of support and from people who have been diagnosed or affected by mental ill-health. The twin sister of a person who died by suicide contacts and meets with Jonny to speak about her unanswered questions. This moment is fraught with slight nervousness to begin with, but once they start to talk Jonny’s open tone is refreshing and helps the sister
www.thelancet.com/psychiatry Vol 1 September 2014
with an insight into what her brother might have been feeling. After a week, the momentum of the campaign declines and Jonny become deflated and returns to his daily routine. He then receives an email from someone claiming to be Mike. Jonny is filled with conflicting emotions; although he is excited to see the man that saved him, he is also overwhelmed and at times breaks down in tears as he realises has to go back to the place that was “the worst point in [his] life.” They meet. As soon as Jonny sees Mike (who is actually called Neil), all the hazy memories of that day become clear and he can finally say thank you and gain closure on that event in his life. The cinematography reflects this positive change: early shots of people walking on the bridge are eerily gloomy and seem to be underwater, whereas after Jonny achieves his goal of thanking his saviour, the water becomes lighter as he is overjoyed and no longer in that dark place. An important outcome from this campaign, greatly highlighted in the documentary, is the effect of people openly talking about mental illness. Jonny admits that 6 years ago he was in such a dark place that “you isolate yourself”. Since 2008, he has felt suicidal again, but he can now admit to how he is feeling and say the words “I’m feeling suicidal” to seek help. “That is the difference and what I couldn’t say before”. This documentary could help the one in 200 people who are affected by schizoaffective disorder, or indeed any mental health issue, not only to speak out openly but also to know where to find or ask for help.
Rethink Mental Illness
The kindness of strangers
Finding Mike Produced by Postcard Productions in association with Rethink Mental Illness, 2014 London To watch the documentary see https://www.youtube.com/channel/ UCUV4CIFE1LYWvNpEuVJLKdg For more on Rethink Mental Illness see https://www.rethink.org
Francesca Towey
267