Movie review: House of D

Last night I watched the movie House of D.

It featured Robin Williams and in this film he played a man with cognitive limitations or, as he said, "mentally challenged" who befriended a young 12 year old boy named Tommy - whose father had recently died and whose mom coped by taking copious amounts of sedatives. [There are numerous scenes with the "r" word if that offends anyone - so I'll put out a warning .]

There's no way to talk about this movie without giving away the plot - however things go downhill for Tommy rapidly and the friendship between the two characters is explored in the process. This film is worth seeing for its tender handling of numerous issues- substance abuse, disability, adolescent angst, friendship, loyalty.

The film, shown as a flashback to the boy's childhood from an adult narrator, was powerful. Tommy had mixed feelings toward his parent as a child: on one hand he felt as if she was giving up and got angry at her and on the other he loved her and tried to protect her - in some ways parent her to keep her from harming herself.

Of course in a child's egotistical world, it's all about them - and so kids can do this number on themselves where they blame themselves and feel they're the reason their parent uses. That means every time a kid 'screws up' in a normal child's way and their parent drinks or take pills, a child blames himself. And so it was with Tommy.

This movie captured these dynamics brilliantly.

This film also conveyed the secrecy surrounding Tommy's home situation and how he was on his own in dealing with his mother's substance abuse issues. It raises issues such as the stigma of addiction and the effect of addiction on family members.

The story is one that needs to be told. And this movie does it better than any other I've seen.
[visual description: A movie poster is shown. The background is gold and the images are black. The two characters- Robin Williams and the boy Tommy - are shown in the foreground. Tommy straddles a bicycle. The title of the film is above the image of the characters. In the background are illustrations of the buildings in a city.]