I was introduced to the book, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, over five years ago. When I heard what it was about, I became intrigued with the premise. Since then, the book has been added to my TBR (to be read) list. While I haven’t read I Never Promised You a Rose Garden yet, I wasn’t going to miss the opportunity to see the film. So, I recorded it on my DVR when it was airing on television. Out of all the movies in my roster of films for A Month Without the Code, this is the only movie that’s rated R. It’ll be interesting to see if it could be “breened”. I also wanted to see if the movie would encourage me to read the book. Film adaptations can be better or worse than its source material. While comparing them is fine, judging them on their own merit is also important.

Things I liked about the film:

The acting: For films that deal with serious subject material, you need a lead actor or actress that will give it their all, talent wise. Personally, I feel that Kathleen Quinlan did just that in her role of Deborah! Seeing this character experience trials and triumphs shows just how seriously Kathleen took this role. Her performance was so well-rounded, emotional, and powerful, that her on-screen presence was captivating. What surprised me about Kathleen’s portrayal was that Deborah seemed like a young woman who was beyond her years. Because I haven’t read the book yet, I don’t know if the character is like this in the book. However, Kathleen brought this aspect of the character to life with such realism.

The realistic depiction of mental health: When incorporating a real-life topic like mental health into a film, it’s better to depict it as realistically as possible. In I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, the portrayals of mental health appeared realistic. For Deborah’s schizophrenia, audience members can hear the “voices” in her head and see her imagined world come to life. Something that I noticed was how the patients had a sense of humanity to them. Some of them seemed to be lost in their own worlds more than others. But, at the end of the day, they had something important to say and a mind of their own.

The discussion of abuse toward patients: I’ve seen several films that talk about mental health, especially where the main setting is a psychiatric hospital. Usually, the treatments themselves end up being abusive toward the patients. In this film, some of the patients are abused because of a cruel employee. I’m glad the movie didn’t shy away from addressing this particular subject. In the films that I’ve seen about mental health, I don’t recall this topic ever being brought up. The fact that a movie from the ’70s that takes place in the ’50s would incorporate this issue in their film is pretty interesting.

What I didn’t like about the film:

A weaker plot: Like I’ve said before, I haven’t read I Never Promised You a Rose Garden. But, I know what the general premise is about from reading the book’s synopsis. After doing that, I believed that the story would be an insightful and thought-provoking tale of someone’s experience with schizophrenia. The movie’s plot, however, wasn’t as interesting as I had thought it would be. The story was very straight-forward, leaving little room for interpretation. While there were interesting ideas and concepts featured throughout the film, they weren’t thoroughly explored. Personally, I thought the movie was driven by a premise and not a plot.

The randomness of the “dream sequences”, To represent the imagined world inside Deborah’s mind, a series of “dream sequences” would appear at various moments in the movie. I think these “dream sequences” were important to the character of Deborah. But how these sequences were incorporated into the film was very random. Sometimes, they would suddenly appear without any warning or build-up. While the imagined world was addressed, it was never explored and dissected. I understand that this was meant to give audience members an idea of what living with schizophrenia is like. But the suddenness of these “dream sequences” was somewhat off-putting.

Very little character development: Because this story revolves around Deborah, she is going to receive the most character development. While this is true, she ends up becoming the only character the audience gets to really know. There’s about two or three other characters that also receive character development. However, the audience doesn’t get to know them as well as Deborah. For the rest of the characters, members of the audience just become familiar with them. This is very different from something like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, where the audience gets to know each of the characters in the story. Because of  I Never Promised You a Rose Garden’s nature, most of the characters felt like they were there just for the sake of moving the plot forward.