Bipolar Portrayal is Funny and Authentic
Quirky. Eccentric. Adorable. In Infinitely Polar Bear, the bipolar character Cam Stuart is a super-likable guy. Played by Mark Ruffalo, Cam is a fun-loving father in a family of four just trying to get by.
Bipolar characters are few and far between in high-profile pop culture. There’s Pat, the bipolar football fanatic played by Bradley Cooper in Silver Linings Playbook, and Carrie Mathison, the bipolar CIA agent played by Claire Danes in the hit Showtime TV show Homeland. And that’s about it. Until now.
Cam is expertly played by Ruffalo in his best performance since 2010’s The Kids Are All Right. He deserves an award for the delicacy of his interpretation. The uncanny rendition of this multifaceted character is a tangible and nuanced interpretation of a bipolar man who lives to love.
The character of Cam was diagnosed manic depressive in 1967, and has had several breakdowns. Yet he still manages to get married and have kids with Maggie, a very understanding woman played by Zoë Saldana.
The film opens in 1978 with home video footage of Cam’s manic antics at Harvard and of Cam and his family with voiceover by his daughter Amelia about her dad’s manic depression. Cut to Cam in a manic moment running down the street in the dead of winter in the Massachusetts countryside wearing only a pair of shiny red briefs that look like something a pro wrestler would wear, ranting gleefully about his manic exploits.
After a stint in a psychiatric ward, Cam gets stable and moves into a halfway house. This is someone taking charge of their mental illness and not letting it flounder in the shadows, an example we should all revere.
Meanwhile, Maggie is seen typing out applications for grad school. When she gets into Columbia University, she proposes that she get her MBA in New York and have Cam move into her apartment to take care of the couple’s two young daughters while she is gone.
Maggie and Cam’s relationship is complicated. They’re married, but they don’t kiss or sleep together. Throughout the movie, Cam is constantly trying to win her back.
Cam is a good cook – crêpes and homemade chocolate truffles are his specialties. And his daughters absolutely adore him, and he genuinely loves them in return.
Throughout the film, we see Cam’s bipolar idiosyncrasies on full display, from his pack-rat lifestyle to his chain-smoking to his penchant for talking up strangers in overly friendly ways.
There are manic moments throughout the movie. He stays up all night drinking beer and sewing the perfect flamenco skirt for his daughter’s school performance. And it turns out good, too. He is seen going off to get drunk at bars. And to the embarrassment of his daughters, Cam invites the neighborhood kids over to their disheveled apartment one day for cinnamon toast and tea.
A dad staying home to take care of the kids while his wife goes off to be the “breadwinner” is beyond progressive for the late ‘70s.
Director Maya Forbes created this autobiographical film based on her own experiences with a bipolar dad in the ‘70s. Perhaps that’s why the movie is so accurate in its portrayal of bipolar disorder.
Never mind his turn as The Incredible Hulk in the blockbuster hit The Avengers, Ruffalo excels is in indie roles like these, going back to his breakthrough in the 2000 indie drama You Can Count on Me.
Despite the film’s omissions of scenes of major depression, this is one of the most authentic on-screen portrayals yet of bipolar disorder, which is bona fide progress for us. Ruffalo shows the audience that it’s OK to be bipolar, that we as bipolar individuals have the capacity for empathy beyond that of the “normies.” And that, above all else, love nearly conquers mental illness.
