Turtles All The Way Down - Review

Rating: 4 out of 5

I'M all for films that honestly depict mental health issues or life on the spectrum. Turtles All The Way Down, based on the best-selling novel by John Green, achieves both with considerable success.

Unfairly labelled - and therefore directed towards - a young adult readership/audience, the film nevertheless has something worthwhile to say about the challenges of living with the type of condition that almost certainly links to mental health and wellbeing.

In this case, it's thought spirals triggered by obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and the protagonist's fear of germs and disease.

As with a lot of Green's books, the spectre of death is never far away (his most famous work remains The Fault In Our Stars), with the lead character having previously lost her dad, with another main player also coming to terms with the recent disappearance of his.

There's also the romantic element - the shared connection that brings about a strong bond, albeit one that is informed by the struggles which take centre stage and which may or may not guarantee a happy ending.

What arguably makes this particular adaptation more compelling is the fact that the book itself has been informed by the author's own experience of living with OCD and the mental health challenges it brings.

Hence, Hannah Mark's film feels more authentic and sensitive towards the issues - treating grief, OCD and mental health with respect, avoiding sugar-coating (the scenes involving spiralling can be quite harrowing) and putting both sides of a relationship across.

That relationship is shared by high-schooler Aza Holmes (Isabela Merced) and Davis (Felix Mallard), a rich childhood friend with whom she bonded at a summer camp for grieving children.

There's also Aza's best friend, Daisy (Cree Cicchino), with whom she teams up to try to find Davis' missing father in order to get the $100,000 reward for any information that could help fulfil her dream of attending Northwestern College for lectures by her favourite psychology professor (Succession’s J Smith Cameron).

All three of the relationships at play feel honest, even when driven by certain plot mechanisms that feel derivative - although it's a shame that much of the story is driven by the trappings of wealth, which add a sheen the film and its central issues could arguably do without.

That being said, the cast is uniformly excellent, with Merced, in particular, standing out in the way that she conveys her mental torment and uncontrollable fear. Her panic spirals are genuinely panic inducing, thereby underlining the debilitating effect they can have.

I also liked the bravery inherent in a scene in which Aza and Daisy fallout, which cuts to the heart of some of the feelings that carers and/or friends/parents can feel when living with someone like Aza. The script, in this case, feels raw and unflinchingly honest, which makes the subsequent reunion (and the words that accompany it) all the more resonant and heartfelt.

There's even a worthwhile discussion about the role of meds in treating spectrum related conditions and mental health disorders, which lends the film extra complexity and emotional gravitas.

Hence, Turtles All The Way Down feels so much more than mere young adult fare. It has a much wider reach and deserves to find a much wider audience.