Netflix’s anorexia drama To The Bone premieres on the streaming service Friday, and the project has been plagued with controversy since it debuted at Sundance earlier this year amidst criticisms of “glamorizing” eating disorders while featuring triggering subject matter and imagery. The release of the film’s trailer back in June certainly did nothing to quell those objections, seeming to portray the subject under the guise of a quirky, heartwarming dramedy set to a twee pop soundtrack — drawing obvious comparisons to Netflix’s other controversial project, 13 Reasons Why. In both cases, the internet outrage was swift and merciless, with think pieces coming in hard and fast.
It seems only fair to give To The Bone the benefit of the doubt, however, especially since it’s based loosely on the early life of writer and director Marti Noxon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Mad Men, UnREAL), who struggled with a life-threatening eating disorder as a teen. Noxon’s film centers around Ellen, a cynical, anorexic 20-year-old artist (played by a terrifyingly gaunt Lily Collins) who winds up at the home of her father (who never appears on screen), overbearing stepmother Susan (True Blood‘s Carrie Preston), and wisecracking stepsister Kelly (Liana Liberato) after getting the boot from her latest in-patient facility.
With nowhere left to turn, and not welcome at the home her mother (Lili Taylor) shares with her lesbian partner, Ellen agrees to an ultimatum set by her stepmother that she give one more facility a shot, one run by the “unconventional” Dr. William Beckham (Keanu Reeves) — who seems to be unconventional mostly in the sense that he “tells it like it is” and says the F-word a lot. With no other real option on the table, Ellen moves into the group home run by Beckham and a housemother of sorts, played by a sadly underused Retta. Once in the home Ellen gradually (but never fully) begins to let her guard down to Dr. Beckham and her fellow housemate Luke (Broadway actor Alex Sharp) a London-born ballet dancer from New Jersey with whom she forms a bond.
To say that the film glamorizes anorexia seems a bit severe, although it does approach the subject with a good amount of dark humor. For instance, to celebrate Ellen’s admission into the new treatment program her mostly well-meaning stepmother presents her with a cake in the shape of a cheeseburger with the words “Eat Up Ellen” written on top in icing. Later, while out of a date with Luke, the two pretend to be terminal cancer patients to hustle the waitress into serving them alcohol underage. Yet, on that same date, it feels a bit uncomfortably rom-com casual to see Ellen laughing through her meal while spitting each bite she takes into wadded up napkins.
In fact, the most frustrating aspect of To The Bone lies in Ellen (who eventually changes her name to “Eli” at the behest of her doctor, a nod to Noxon changing her own name from Martha to Marti), who never seems to make any genuine steps towards change throughout the film, nor does she ever see any real repercussions from refusing to get help and hurting everyone around her. She uses her apathy as a crutch, blaming her problems on both a messy, contentious family life and the suicide of a fan of her “thinspiration” Tumblr artwork, which she blames herself for deep down. Collins gives a solid performance here, but it would have been nice to see any amount of character growth prior to the film’s optimistic yet ambiguous ending. Every turn when it seems as if Ellen might actually be making a step forward, she takes two steps back. That’s undoubtedly by design, but it’s also To the Bone‘s most persistent problem.
But the problem’s stretch beyond Ellen. The supporting characters all seem relatively one-note, and for such serious, heavy subject matter the film never seems to fully commit to it. In the most jaw-dropping scene in the film, a pregnant in-patient named Megan (Leslie Bibb) suffers a horrific consequence as a result of a relapse, but instead of having the characters deal with that loss head-on they just brush it aside and move onto the next thing. To The Bone is a film with real potential, and it’s clear that Noxon is attempting to tell a story without the usual clichés associated with the subject matter. But ultimately the film falls just short of the mark, coming off as glib rather than irreverent. Maybe we should just consider this more evidence that it’s difficult to address this topic in a ways both a meaningful and true.
