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Entity discusses Netflix movie To the Bone

The upcoming Netflix original film “To the Bone” depicts the struggles of dealing with anorexia… but this isn’t necessarily a good thing.

Lily Collins plays Ellen, a teenage girl who lives in a treatment home to overcome her anorexia. The trailer begins with her listing off calorie counts for every item on her dinner plate by heart. The trailer then shows a montage of Ellen’s manic workout patterns and bony vertebrae, interspersed with the words “I am healthy,” “I am strong” and “I am in control.”

The trailer for “To the Bone” shows her health declining until she’s placed in a home to receive more directed treatment.

The media has had volatile reactions to the film, despite the fact that only one vague trailer has been released. Is it really the trailer that upset the audience, or was it the subject matter itself?

Psychologists are already worried about trigger warnings.

Entity discusses Netflix film To the Bone

Image via Giphy

Just like the television show “13 Reasons Why” — which mental health experts worried may have glorified the devastating act of suicide — “To the Bone” left many mental health experts alarmed on a number of levels.

“My anxiety is that because [the movie looks like] it has a happy ending and looks like such an enriching experience that it may seem to be an appealing way to address internal conflict,” Dasha Nicholl, who is chair of the eating disorders faculty at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, told The Guardian. Her concern is mainly for the anorexia trigger warnings that may be present in the film, regardless of the overall message it conveys.

It seems many people are worried that the focus on Collins’s character’s anorexia may be more along the Pro-Ana line, dramatizing and glorifying the potentially fatal disorder for the benefit of entertainment. However, the film’s leading lady is ready to defend her work against critics.

Lily Collins is having none of it.

Entity discusses Netflix film To the Bone

Image via Giphy

Lily Collins herself is quick to dismiss dissuaders… mostly because literally one trailer is all critics have yet seen of “To the Bone.” “A two-minute-and-thirty-second trailer does not represent the entire movie,” she explained in an interview with Access Hollywood. “Neither I nor Marty would ever set out to make a film that would glamorize or encourage a disorder that I personally went through that was negative.”

The show does not focus on gratuitous shots of bony bodies.

She also mentioned how pictures of anorexia are often what trigger those who were at risk of developing anorexia.

“There’s only one time that you see her whole body, but other than that, it’s not about glamorizing, fetishizing, showing images that didn’t need to be seen. It was about the story.” Collins insists that her character’s dangerously skinny figure is not glorified in the film, and that the focus is instead on her personal struggle. 

So essentially, no one knows how they’ll handle this delicate topic until July 14, which is the Netflix release date for the film. Perhaps we should wait ’til more content is available than the trailer before we make our final judgments on the full movie.

Edited by Kayla Caldwell
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