Brain On Fire (2018) - Movie Review

When making films based on real events, one-in-a-million stories are a safe go-to. And considering a certain level of medical curiosity prevails in the film industry (this is why mental conditions are easy Oscar hopefuls), putting the two together can mean shedding cinematic light on disorders and diseases that the layman hasn’t heard of before. From early-onset Alzheimer’s to anaesthetic awareness to, as this particular film focuses on, anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis, these types of medical conditions can serve as an empathic gateway, giving audiences a look at the perspective of someone going through something that few others have.

Or, at least, that’s the theory. Where this film runs into problems with that idea is in its presentation, which is deceptively on-side for a story like this. Film editor JC Bond and sound editor Brendan Rehill do very well at translating the hallucinations of Susannah to the screen, adding palpable cerebral discomfort that allows for suitable disorientation. However, it’s not disorientation that makes for a connection between audience and subject, even with the perspective given. Honestly, it’s far more annoying than anything else, giving the production a depressive feeling that was likely unintentional.

This is a side effect of the far greater problem with this production, and an unfortunate pitfall when dealing with a story like this: It puts all the emphasis on the condition, rather than the person who has it. It depicts Susannah, her psychotic episodes and her eventual stay in hospital with all the coldness and emotional distance of an attending doctor; it’s filmmaking as diagnosis. It lacks the required empathy to make the confusion weaved into the story work, which is a serious issue when trying to put a human face to a rare condition. It even reaches a point of unintentional subtext, with Dr. Souhel Najjar saying "I will find you" to Susannah when starting to look into her condition, making it look like he’s talking directly to the encephalitis.

The format of 'person has a medical problem, but everyone is struggling to figure out what it is' has been the basis for many a TV show set in hospitals, and they usually put the focus on the condition and the people treating it as well. Of course, both as an individual piece of media and as a dramatisation of a real person’s experiences, that format in no way fits with this. As a result, what should be a wrenching bit of medical drama is reduced to exasperating apathy because the condition is given more of a personality than Susannah herself. That mentality of treating those with medical conditions as walking diagnoses is something I am growing to hate in the real world, and seeing this film fall into the same pattern is quite disheartening.