• Home
  • Buy our Kindle Movie Quizzes
  • Meet Team BMAF
  • Contact BMAF
    • Website Privacy Notice
    • Cookie Policy

Barking Mad About Films

One man and his dog; both barking mad about films

Illness on screen! A prescription for Box Office Success?

April 27, 2016 by Bill Leave a Comment

n/a
shares
Be First to Share ->
Share on Twitter
Share on Google+
Share on LinkedIn
+
What's This?

This week, Facebook highlighted that we had watched The Fault in our Stars A Teen Romantic Drama about illness, in this instance, sufferers with cancer, a year ago! What was a coincidence was that this week’s film rental was Miss You Already, again a film about someone coming to terms with being diagnosed with cancer.

Films dealing with illness, terminal or not as well as mental illness have been around for some time, but they seem to be a new trend by going for the Young Adult audience. We have also had Now Is Good; Me and Earl and the Dying Girl and If I Stay. 

With the exception of Miss You Already, all the films featured were based on novels, and we did not know until we researched for this blog, that they are known as the poorly titled Sick-Lit. Granted, they may be about people who are sick, but they do tend to be heart warming stories, that make us realise how precious life is and how we should be grateful for what we have.

A prime example of this would be JoJo Moyes novel, Me Before you, about how a young man decided to end his life after becoming paralysed. We are certainly looking forward to seeing the film version of this, which we have blogged about  Previously:

Of course, the subject of illness, is  not new to cinema and whilst these films may feature younger cast members, they can all offer an intense and uplifting movie experience even if the subject matter can make the film a hard watch.

Heavy dramas often do attract star names to them, examples including Stepmom starring Julia Roberts and Susan Sarandon; Marvin’s Room starring Meryl Streep, Diane Keaton and Leonardo DiCaprio; My Life starring Michael Keaton and Nicole Kidman; Sweet November starring Keanu Reeves and Charlize Theron and The Bucket List with Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson to name a few! 

We have even seen the subject matter used in comedy dramas with Judd Apatow using Adam Sandler in Funny People. Also done with a lot of humour was 50/50 with Seth Rogen and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

We would also add Missing You Already to this list, however this was different from others, as showed that it is not all happy and romantic to the end, as we see Milly (Toni Collete) self-destruct, dealing with her cancer, endangering her lifetime friendship to her best friend, Jess (Drew Barrymore) and almost destroy her marriage to Kit (Dominic Cooper) 

Of course, many illnesses have been portrayed on screen, bringing Oscar glory for their stars as well. Examples include Philadelphia dealing with Aids (Tom Hanks); Silver Linings Playbook dealt with Bipolar (Jennifer Lawrence); Rain Man covered Autism (Dustin Hoffman); My Left Foot covered Cerebral Palsy (Daniel Day-Lewis); As Good As It Gets was about an Obsessive Compulsive (Jack Nicholson); Leaving Las Vegas covered Alcoholism (Nicolas Cage) and most recently Alzheimer’s was covered by Still Alice with the Oscar going to Julianne Moore. 

The films may even offer comfort to those who have lost someone, P.S. I Love You starring Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler saw the deceased help the one that has been left behind, find love again. A personal favourite of mine,

A personal favourite of mine, Return to me saw David Duchovny find love with the person who received a heart transplant from his wife. Heart transplants are also covered in Untamed Heart with Christian Slater.

Whatever happens, due to the fact that they do currently bring money to the box office or awards to the stars means their success will see the genre continue. The films may even help, I’m sure after seeing a tragic film about a cancer sufferer, you may be more inclined to donate to that charity and that can only be a good thing!

Do you think films should cover subjects like illness? Do you have a favourite film about an illness we have not mentioned? We would love to hear from you here at Barking Mad about Films

Chihuahua and Missing You Already DVD
Pepper and our latest rental as well as poster for Missing You Already, our latest film viewing about illness, which we look at in this blog! 

 

 Never miss a BMAF blog. Receive email notifications when new posts are published by entering your email address in the subscription box on the top right-hand side of this page.

 

You can also like us on Facebook for more film trailers, trivia and content www.facebook.com/barkingmadaboutfilms/

Share on Twitter
Share on Google+
Share on LinkedIn
+

Comments

comments

Filed Under: Adaptation, Award winner, Blockbuster, Blockbuster movies, Book Adaptation, Book to film, Box Office, Character Drama, Characters, Chat, Choice, comedy, Comedy drama, date movie, Debate, Decisions, Different, Drama, Favourite, Film, Film Chat, Film observations, Film review, Film reviews, Love story, Movie Discussion, Movie News, Movie Review, Movie stars, Movie theme, Oscar nominated, Oscar Winner, review, Romance, Romantic, romantic comedy, Romantic Drama, RomCom, YA movies Tagged With: 50/50, Academy Award, Adam Sandler, As Good As It Gets, Book, Book Adaptation, Cancer, Charlize Theron, Christian Slater, Daniel Day-Lewis, David Duchovny, Diane Keaton, Dominic Cooper, Drew Barrymore, Dustin Hoffman, Funny People, Gerard Butler, Hilary Swank, If I stay, Illness, Illness on Film, Jack Nicholson, Jennifer Lawrence, Jojo Moyes, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Judd Apatow, Julia Roberts, Julianne Moore, Keanu Reeves, Leaving Las Vegas, Leonardo DiCaprio, Marvins Room, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, Me Before You, Mental Illness, Meryl Streep, Michal Keaton, Miss You Already, Morgan Freeman, My Left Foot, My Life, Nicolas Cage, Nicole Kidman, Now Is Good, Oscar, Oscar Winner, P S I Love you, Philadelphia, Rain Man, Return to Me, Seth Rogen, Sick Lit, Sicklit, Sickness, Silver Linings Playbook, Stepmom, Still Alice, Susan Sarandon, Sweet November, The Bucket List, The Fault in our Stars, Tom Hanks, Toni Collette, Untamed Heart

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

What Have We Been Barking Mad About Recently?

  • Our Visible Review of the Invisible Man
  • Is Bad Boys For Life A Return to Form For The Franchise?
  • Is The Rise of Skywalker A Fitting End To The Star Wars Saga?
  • The Barking Mad About Films Top 10 Films of 2019
  • 10 Films We Can’t Wait To See In 2020

Jump to a Category

Jump To a Tag

3 star review 3 Stars 3D 4 Star review 4 stars 5 Star Review 5 Stars Blockbuster Book Book Adaptation Book to Film CGI Comedy Deadpool Disney drama Film Film Blog Film Review Five star review five stars Four Star review Four Stars Franchise Ghostbusters Harry Potter Horror James Bond Jaws Jennifer Lawrence John Wick Marvel Marvel Comics Movie Blog Movie review Reboot Remake review sequel Star Wars Star Wars: The Force Awakens Three Star Review Three Stars Thriller Tim Burton

Copyright © 2023 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in