Part drama, part dark comedy, new film To the Bone talks about a young woman’s struggle with anorexia (厌食症). Though the film already got generally positive reviews at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, it has caused a hot Twitter debate around whether it could be harmful for those with eating disorders.
Critics of the film have focused on the leading role Ellen: a young, thin, white woman with anorexia. They think there’re some plots that have made eating disorders look like trends instead of life-threatening illnesses. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, anorexia has the highest mortality rate (死亡率) of any mental illness. Thirty million Americans struggle with eating disorders at some point in their lives.
Director Marti Noxon based the film on her own battle with anorexia. She was aware of the film’s potential to trigger harmful effects and then tried to be really careful in the way she showed how Ellen looked. “You want to help other people understand something that they’ve never experienced, but you also want people who have experienced it to feel understood and seen and to give people hope,” she added. “We were balancing a lot. I want to avoid the idea that the perfectionist quality of anorexics is their most obvious character.”
The film caught the attention of Liana Rosenman, who founded Project Heal, an organization that helps eating disorder sufferers afford treatment. “I thought it was very powerful,” Rosenman said. “There is a sense of humor and wittiness in it as well as just understanding what it’s like to have an eating disorder.” Project Heal recently played To the Bone in New York and Los Angeles, but it has faced sharp criticism from members of their community on social media.
【小题1】What do we know about the film To the Bone from Paragraph 1?| A．It tells the growth story about a girl. |
| B．It has received mixed comments. |
| C．It is popular among young people. |
| D．Twitter users have no interest in it. |
| A．She admitted the film is harmful to people. |
| B．She tried hard to make the film benefit people. |
| C．All those suffering from anorexia want to be perfect. |
| D．People who haven’t experienced anorexia can’t understand it. |
| A．Supportive | B．Negative |
| C．Uncertain | D．Unconcerned |
| A．Medical magazine. |
| B．Healthy Life Style magazine. |
| C．A film review. |
| D．A newspaper report. |
