Steineded How sad is this?

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

rleegray-569-58158 I usually avoid movies that I know are going to be heavily sad. I know from the subject matter that this one would be. And usually if I do watch a movie that turns out to be as intense and sad as this one, I usually will never watch it again. This is not a movie that I will ever be able to watch over and over, but it is a movie that despite my normal pattern, I have now watched multiple times. The biggest draw for the movie to me is the performances by Spacek and Bancroft. They both are so good, and they turn the dialogue they are given into gold. The movie is heavily driven by the dialogue and the characters, and it all flows together so well. By the end you feel you truly know these two women, and you feel all that they feel. Overall, the script, the direction, the camera angles, and most of all the performances just all shine in this movie. I can recommend anyone watch the film at least once for the performances. Just prepared for an intense, roller coaster ride of emotions.

mydadhasnohair A harrowing tale, Jessie Cates is an epileptic who is unable to drive or hold down a job and has decided that there is no reason to go on living anymore. She is quite serious in her intent but tells her mother that she is planning to kill herself before the night is over with. She then goes through the motions of labeling all of her belongings so that they may go to the appropriate person after she is gone.During this time Jessie gets things in order for her mother while her mother tries to convince her not to kill herself. This movie hits home with anyone who has ever seriously considered killing themselves or the people they leave behind. Excellent acting throughout as one would expect from these actors. At times the movie was humorous, emotional and very thought provoking. I swear I never cry about films but the ending just gripped me in a way only one movie has ever before, Grave of the Fireflies. The ending was so nerve wracking and tense, it will leave you thinking about the film for awhile after you see the film. This is a great film for anyone who is thinking about committing suicide as it gets you to thinking about the people and devastation you leave behind.

tieman64 Based on Marsha Norman's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, "Night, Mother" stars Sissy Spacek as Jessie, a depressed loner and sufferer of epilepsy who lives with her mother, played by Anne Bancroft.The duo live a dull existence, passing time by tending to chores and discussing various inanities, a routine which is interrupted one night when Jessie announces her plans to kill herself. Her mother, of course, initially does not believe this. The film then unfolds in real time, as Jessie and her mother grapple with issues of life, death, love, pain, dysfunction, failed consolations, depression, illness, regret, futility, hopelessness, self-hate, misunderstanding, anger, guilt, heaven, hell and various other existential avenues. Unfortunately these conversations have no larger effect on Jessie. She kills herself.The film has many flaws – it is poorly paced, too stiff, Spacek's "method acting" clashes with Bancroft's more "theatrical" style – but is nevertheless at times powerful, and includes at least 4 excellent moments, all of which ooze emotion. Spacek's performance is powerful.Today, most cutting edge studies of suicide zoom in on genetic or biological factors, whilst simultaneously zooming out to encompass wider, social factors. ie, causation is always micro and macro. But in any highly social organism, and with any behaviour with strongly social components, we should always look for the evolutionary reason first within social function. In this regard, perhaps depression is designed to reduce the social influence of the depressed individual, even in extreme cases leading to their permanent removal through premature death. The reason why this is useful is obvious: suicide is a far less stressful (for the tribe) method of getting rid of malfunctioning members than murder.This suggests that depression is merely a suicide switch, the macroscopic version of cell apoptosis (programmed cell death), that can be thrown by our tribe when our deaths or dis-empowerment are necessary for the good of the group. This would correlate well with the observation that depression is more likely during the onset of resource-poor conditions (e.g. winter) when the tribe may need to cull members, and less likely under emergency small-group lifeboat conditions, when every member is urgently needed.But what is it about these individuals that would be "evolutionary beneficial" if they were removed from the tribe? And if suicidal persons are so harmful to society, then why are those who contemplate suicide often high achievers? This opens up a whole can of existential questions, most of them linked with the correlation between depression and IQ. Some studies show that depressed individuals are likely to have higher IQs than supposedly "more balanced people" (the association stops once you get beyond a certain IQ range). The more intelligent a person is, the more likely they are going to see the world for what it truly is. Nature doesn't want this, of course. Camus himself offered that perhaps it is people who are always cheerful, happy, etc. that are in possession of mental disorders, as they are constantly upholding a false sense of reality. In contrast, the depressed person has the ability to rise out of the human fantasy and enter a sort of morbid reality.But we have to be careful not to romanticise depression/suicide. Suicide is always the result of an organism's inability to construct a future, and most who contemplate self-destruction are actually not smart enough to work their way out of their problems. Indeed, recently neuroscientists have begun linking suicide not to IQ, but to "selective attention" and "executive functions", or what psychologist Michael Posner calls "cognitive control". The idea is simply that depressed/suicidal brains have weaker executive functions and are unable to "block out things" like "normal people" are able to.But assuming that IQ/giftedness and suicide correlate (studies are conflicting), even intelligent persons who are able to "think their way out of suicide" – and suicidal persons are notoriously deep thinkers – often get caught in a dangerous limbo. Though sufficiently gifted to ponder an issue and come to a conclusion of action, this action itself brings with it a whole other set of issues and problems associated with executing that action. This is why people who contemplate suicide, but never act out on it, often getting caught in an even deeper depression, their minds spiralling into thought, constantly imagining every possible outcome to a particular situation. Eventually the individual shuts itself down and does nothing entirely, opting instead to shelter themselves from the insecurity of not knowing the outcome. End result: a sort of stasis.This has led other thinkers suggesting that there is a correlation between suicide and control. That the mind "thinks itself into lock-down" (depression=evolution trying to slow the brain, some suggest) because it realises it can never calculate the extent of its own autonomy. The suicidal brain, in other words, cannot cope with both chaos and the limits of its own agency, a trauma which "normal brains" have adapted to blank out.Then you have issues of suicide as a larger social failure; the possible result of a society/government/economic-model/set-of-cultural-mores which is itself toxic (in MEDC's, suicide is the second leading cause of death amongst young people). That's Antonioni territory. On a more positive note, many successful people have self-analysed themselves and turned suicide/depression into an advantage. Kazimierz Dąbrowski called this "positive disintegration". You look at many major achievers in the world and you'll find some dark night of the soul looming large in their past. Perhaps it is only in directly confronting suicide that man can truly consider himself to be free.7.9/10 – Worth one viewing.

mellicott65 You don't need CGI or other special effects, just great dialogue!!!!! The acting in this movie is so perfect,I can't believe that the main characters didn't share a Best Actress Oscar. Anne Bancroft, may she rest in peace, was so incredible, I immediately watched the movie for a second time. Watch her facial expressions, her eyes, her body language. You can feel her angst and sadness in trying to help her daughter.Gosh, this movie is 25 years old. It should have been in wide distribution at the time of release, as many are unaware of its existence, despite being a Pulitzer Prize winning drama.Watch it and leave a comment. I'd love to discuss it with you.