Based on a book of the same name written by Elizabeth Wutzel, the film chronicles her battle with clinical depression while being a college undergraduate at Harvard.
Prozac Nation premiered to critics at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival and was subsequently given a pass by US test audiences which resulted in having Miramax shelving any plans of a US film release. In 2005, Prozac Nation made its US premiere on cable before it was released onto DVD that summer.
Prozac Nation presents Wurtzel (Christian Ricci) as a Kernbergian compost of distasteful borderline symptomalogy, affective instability and substance abuse which makes for a psych fairytale.
Depression is an amazingly selfish illness and Prozac Nation does not let you forget that with Wurtzel’s constant self loathing (even as a 9 year old child) and internal shrill.
Yet, this movie resonates because as one who still suffers from clinical depression I found myself staring into a broken mirror. Seeing myself outside of my own skin, the film makers successfully understands the selfishness of Wurtzel’s depression which involves the need to cause others pain, how her depression challenges people around her to maintain their fast depleting sanity.
While the movie seemingly ends in Wurtzel’s life being miraculously cured by Prozac, a later interview had her admitting that “Prozac does not make you happy but it does make you feel not sad” and I could not agree more.
