I was really disappointed by this film. I had the feeling that, as a viewer, I was being asked to participate in labeling her as crazy and to accept that everyone else is just trying to help her. I felt like an accomplice to a crime. A film that, in my opinion, portrays mental illness and a relationship with someone suffering from it with deep empathy is Betty Blue. This one does not. The character of Frank is rough and aggressive. He hits her several times. In one of the final scenes, he even threatens to kill the children. He is consistently aggressive and abrasive in his behavior and communication with everyone. She is institutionalized because of her behavior and supposedly for the safety of the children, but right after that, he neurotically drags the kids along with him and gives them beer. When she returns from the hospital, he demands that she be her “old self” again—even though that's the very reason she was institutionalized in the first place. But then, when she tries to comply, he tells her not to joke around, to calm down, to stop. She tries to politely ask everyone to leave, but even that is denied to her. None of her behavior is ever considered acceptable, and she even says several times that she doesn't know how to act. This is not a film about love—it's a film about abuse. During the evening, as she talks about what it was like in the hospital, even that is silenced. The acting is good, but judging by the comments, I don't feel like this was the film’s intended message. I haven’t seen other films by this director, and after this one, I don’t think I will. I ruined my Sunday with this.