WORDS ON BATHROOM WALLS: A Sensitive & Truthful Look At Schizophrenia

Hollywood has an obsession with the young adult genre, but Hollywood has many obsessions — from jump-scare horror to tragic romance to ribald comedy — and those obsessions often churn out forgettable duds. But with every dud that blemishes the silver screen, there’s a fresh spin on a story we’ve seen so many times before. Along with depicting a syrupy romance between two distressed teens, Thor Freudenthal’s Words on Bathroom Walls explores the thorny subject of mental health, particularly what a life with schizophrenia would look like, and how much stigma there is surrounding the illness.

Based on Julia Walton’s novel of the same name and adapted by Nick Naveda, Words on Bathroom Walls is a compassionate, insightful, and commercially accessible adaptation that is able to destigmatize schizophrenia by focusing on a teenager who has no choice but to live with the illness around the time he must venture the hostile high school terrain. Over the course of the film, the intractable and understandably frustrated teen must learn to accept help from those who love him and want to support him. 

At first glance, Adam Petrazelli (Charlie Plummer) appears to be your typical, socially inept teenager with considerable dreams, fiery hormones, and deep-seated emotions. With unwavering determination and copious potential, Adam is aspiring to become a chef. But, underneath his viable hankerings, Adam’s been diagnosed with schizophrenia following a psychotic break at his local high school, which results in his expulsion. As with many other mental illnesses, treatment is available, but Adam is rather impervious to medications. Even so, Adam is assigned a new experimental drug around the same time he’s accepted into a Catholic high school to conclude his senior year. 

It’s at this Catholic school where he meets quick-witted valedictorian Maya (Taylor Russell). Maya’s extraordinarily clever and self-assured, but she also runs a successful side gig writing essays for her well-heeled peers. Instantly, Adam is drawn to Maya’s energy and spirit, thus kindling another attraction that can’t be fully explained in words. But with every medication, there’s the possibility of side effects. In Adam’s particular case, the meds impact his faculty to cook. With his dream on the line, Adam chooses not to take the meds, and in typical teenage fashion, he tries to hide it from his mom (Molly Parker) and her new boyfriend Paul (Walton Goggins), propelling himself down a precarious path. 

In This Bold Teen Romance, A Teen Lives With Schizophrenia

A jaunty voice-over sequence introduces us to the lippy, frivolous, and discreetly vexed Adam, and we quickly get the sense of how much cooking means to him. Whenever a schizophrenia episode is looming, Adam is confronted by a brooding voice and a foreboding dark fog that permeates the room, prompting him to lose a sense of reality. Miraculously, cooking does a fine job of silencing the voices. 

Classified as “treatment-resistant”, Adam is compelled to participate in an experimental treatment program, largely to appease his concerned mother. Concomitantly, Adam gets a fresh start at a Catholic school, and he aims to conceal his illness from his new classmates because he doesn’t want his disorder to define him.

It’s true that Adam’s hallucinations are often trepidatious and unnerving, but the voices manifest themselves in three prominent and vibrant personalities: Joaquin (Devon Bostick), a flippant and shaggy-haired lady’s man, Rebecca (AnnaSophia Robb), a perky hippie, and there’s also an unnamed and choleric bodyguard (Lobo Sebastian) who wears a tracksuit and flaunts a bat. While the showy personalities resemble caricatures, unintentionally misprizing the baleful ramifications these hallucinations have on Adam’s mind, they nurture a lighter tone that’ll keep a younger audience enthralled. After all, on top of being a mental health drama, there’s no avoiding the fact that Words on Bathroom Walls is also a teen romance. And that is in no way a distasteful concoction.

In another effort to underscore Adam’s battle with schizophrenia, Adam’s therapy sessions yield the fourth wall breaking conversations that turn viewers into the psychiatrist. Admittedly, he is speaking to an actual psychiatrist, though the psychiatrist remains unseen and unheard. During these sessions, Adam talks directly to the audience, painstakingly expounding his struggles with schizophrenia and how other people perceive him. Nick Naveda’s credible screenplay gives Adam a lot of room to publicly disclose his thoughts as if they were written in a journal. These loquacious segments ostensibly keep in sync with the novel that inspired the film, and the scenes work due to Charlie Plummer’s charming performance.

In an ideal world, nobody would be defined by their illness or hardship, but the reality is less comforting. Whilst the discourse on mental health has greatly improved over the years, some illnesses, such as schizophrenia, are still misunderstood and looked down upon. In order to help outsiders understand, viewers are immersed in Adam’s world.

It’s in Adam’s world where viewers get some insight into how schizophrenia affects the mind, and despite being altered, the human mind still ponders emotional connection. The film makes it abundantly clear that Adam wants to live life like every other teenager. But, as innocuous as that sounds, Adam has a severe mental condition, and he can’t simply shrug it off. With potent, thematic underpinning, Words on Bathroom Walls leads to a certain conclusion: while Adam deserves relationships, friendships, and dreams like everyone else, he still has to deal with the mental disorder, and he can’t do it alone.

Charlie Plummer & Taylor Russell Are Phenomenal 

The film underlines a central romance between two ill-matched teens, who eventually realize they have more in common than they initially thought – a habitual teen romance, is it not? Fortunately, Words on Bathroom Walls highlights two performances that elevate the core romance to an authentic level.

Anchored by an exceptional Charlie Plummer and a magnetic Taylor Russell, these versatile performances inject more depth into their characters. Plummer, who is one of the best young actors working today (Lean on Pete, Share, Looking for Alaska), delivers a dedicated performance as Adam. Plummer naturally conveys the character’s fluctuating moods and stifled spleen, which is imperative to the film and its tackling of schizophrenia. Russell, who recently exhibited her acting facilities in Trey Edward Shults’ underrated Waves, is able to present her character’s insecurities through nuanced body language.

As expected, there are religious stipulations that come with going to a Catholic school, stipulations that involve Adam undergoing confession. This is where the agreeable and eminently funny Father Patrick (an immensely likable Andy Garcia) enters the picture, and he remains a welcoming presence throughout who offers life advice to Adam.

Back at home, Adam is constantly at odds with his mom’s new boyfriend, who Adam believes is trying to send him away to an institution. Molly Parker and Walton Goggins are in fine form, never once becoming overdrawn parental figures who try to assert their understanding that they know what Adam is going through because they’ve done the research, but they can’t possibly know. Even so, Adam needs a support system, as should anyone.

Maya is on track to be valedictorian, and she relentlessly strives for perfection. Yet, just by reading between the lines, Maya’s life isn’t perfect. While the Never Been Kissed references and patriarchal quips are a bit stilted, the fashion in which Maya’s home life is revealed is very effective.

By examining schizophrenia and the burden it can have on loved ones, Adam and Maya’s relationship is nicely established. Adam genuinely wants to get better, but is it worth the cost of his dream? Adam doesn’t think so, and Adam begins deserting the new medication because it scrambles his cooking and taste. Adam’s dilemma has its obvious pros and cons, and it results in some mildly moving scenes with his mother and Paul. Regrettably, the ending steps into full-on fantasy mode as another big speech seemingly solves everything. However, no raucous applause ensues, and that alone hauls the film back into some sort of reality.

Conclusion: Words on Bathroom Walls

Thor Freudenthal’s Words on Bathroom Walls is a worthy addition to the YA crowd and an even more novel addition to the mental health sub-genre. The nascent romance between two incompatible teens is closely adhering to a John Hughes template, and The Chainsmokers’ electro-pop score is conventionally upbeat. While frequently animated and wry — and romantic, of course — Words on Bathroom Walls persists on being realistic with its portrayal of schizophrenia. 

Words on Bathroom Walls respectfully gives a voice to those who, despite coping with schizophrenia, yearn to be heard, understood, and loved. This is a step in the right direction when it comes to drawing crucial awareness to schizophrenia, even if the film occasionally seeks an easy way out.  

Have you seen Words on Bathroom Walls? If not, are you interested in seeing it now? Let us know in the comments!

Words on Bathroom Walls was released on August 21, 2020, in theaters nationwide. 

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