Brain on Fire (2016) User Reviews

Mesmerizing and such an important film

[Robert_duder · 8/10 · 22 September 2016]

This was my TIFF experience this year so I got to experience the World Premier along with the cast in Toronto. The film is breath taking and not from an entertainment standpoint though in a way it is that too. This film tells an incredible true story about a terrifying experience and disease and it is told well with little dramatic flare I think. Some professional reviews from the premier were very harsh and I personally don't understand it.

I have always been a fan of Chloe Grace Moretz and her performance isn't perfect because there are times where she struggles to really pull off the realism but she is really good at demonstrating how great Suzanna's life was and how quickly it deteriorated and how much she struggled. She does her very best work showing Suzanna at her most extreme low point. She is believable and heart wrenching. I actually think with what I've seen this year, she deserves her first Oscar nomination for her performance. Tyler Perry was actually amazing as her boss. It's not a big role but honestly it was best supporting material in my opinion and I'm not a Tyler Perry fan. There was something genuinely moving about his performance. Her parents played by Richard Armitage (who apparently has a huge fan base?) and Carrie-Ann Moss do a solid job. Carrie Ann-Moss feels a bit out of place and Armitage really plays up the outbursts of emotion from a father where it is almost borderline campy unfortunately. Neither one of them are big home runs in my book but they do a good job and Moretz saves them both. Jenny Slate was really good in a small role as her best friend and Thomas Mann was also very good as her love interest Stephen. I also think Mann might have been miscast and yet he does a good job.

I get why some critics might be harsh against this. I don't think they picked the likely cast or the ones who were maybe shoe-ins but the cast they did pick do great. The director Gerard Barrett has done a great job here. He doesn't have a lot of experience but I think he did this film with great respect and thought behind it and truly wanted to not dramatize the film and tell the story and make people aware of the medical issues behind this. I though it was a moving and strong film with a great message, good performances, and an absolute must see! 8.5/10

Awful disease exposed in movie

[pietclausen · 6/10 · 30 July 2018]

Many viewers are giving this film a high rating and are upset if anyone gives a lower rating. They are judging this film on the disease and not the movie. IMDb uses criteria to arrive at a fair value, which in most cases is more accurate. It is not an average of all ratings added together but is based on all ratings made.

My rating of 6 for this important movie is very close to this adjusted final rating and thus my thoughts about the movie tallies with this logic. The movie itself is only average, dealing with a very important subject. I am glad to have seen it.

better than Lifetime

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 8 October 2017]

Susannah Cahalan (Chloë Grace Moretz) is 21 with a dream job as a New York Post reporter. Stephen Grywalski is her musician boyfriend. Her father Tom Cahalan (Richard Armitage) and her mother Rhona Nack (Carrie- Anne Moss) are divorced. Fellow reporter Margo (Jenny Slate) is her best friend and Richard (Tyler Perry) is her boss. She starts suffering from strange symptoms but doctors are stymied.

The story is basically a medical mystery Lifetime movie. It has superior actors who are able to bring some life to the material. The story is very straight forward with no surprises and the filmmaking is the same. It leaves the movie with limited potential for tension but the actors with the exception of the boyfriend try their best to elevate the material. There is one scene which surprised me. When she looked into the mirror and can't see her reflection, it occurred to me that the first half of the movie could easily be turned into a horror movie. There is a potential to see this from her point of view and make this a paranoia disturbing vision. That could have injected something original into the first half and allow for a surprise twist in the middle. Otherwise, this is solid if somewhat uninspired filmmaking.

Cahalan's amazing journey of recovery from a terrible brain disease

[bettycjung · 25 June 2018]

6/23/18. I read the book a few years ago and did not know they made it into a movie. Obviously, I had to watch it. It was a very good adaptation of the book, which I loved. It was good that Suzanne Cahalan recovered from this terrible brain condition to write about it. She could have wasted away in a psychiatric hospital because the doctors couldn't find anything wrong with her and wrote off her illness as a psychiatric condition. It wasn't until Dr. Najjar came on board, did the biopsy and gave her proper treatment that Cahalan's life turned around. Totally inspirational and worth watching.

Difficult brain diagnosis turned into movie

[yard_boy · 7/10 · 8 June 2017]

A young newspaper writer suffers an unexpected breakdown and this film follows the consequences, medical review, treatment options, meds, etc. It's an interesting story with a somewhat rare root cause, but not that unique considering the exponential learning curve of medical science just in the last 50 years. The screenplay possibly originated in a medical journal.

For me, the best part was the insider's view of medical triage: the trials and tribulations of diagnosis, the pressure of expediency, and the effects of advocacy paired with available health care.

Suggestions for Chloe Grace Moretz casting/make-up: - the puffy lips were distracting - her nails were too perfect for someone earning a living at a keyboard AND suffering manic episodes.

Great performances and terrible purpose

[Emily_Baines · 6/10 · 7 September 2019]

At first, this movie seemed so promising to me. Everything was intriguing. A person starts to struggle with his mental state, and the acting of Chloe Grace Moretz and the parents of her character was stunning and filled with emotion. It really touched, you know. I could feel the horror of the parents whose child is falling apart and all the cinematography transfers the permanent dazed state so well. Anyway, this movie is not about this. The further it went, the clearer I could see that the main aim of this film is to encourage people to push the doctors harder and harder if the diagnosis does not suit them. I mean, the number when the pacient loses his life because the patients incorrectly diagnosed his disease is not small, however, those mistakes do not always occur because of the incompetence of medics. Nobody is a 'see-it-all-guy', anyway, in this movie it is concentrated only on doctors' fault. Furthermore, sometimes a mental disorder IS a mental disorder even if parents cannot believe that their beloved child could be 'infected' with it. But this is the true. Let's not forget that even the main character of this movie had a career that could really provoke some severe psychological issues and parents cannot know if their 'little child' does not use any kind of drugs or alcohol. This is the bitter truth that is encouraged to be forgotten while fighting with the system although sometimes the one who is wrong is the one who is fighting with it. So, why am I giving so much - 6 stars - for this movie? Only for amazing acting and probably for the first half of the movie. Anyway, I warn you: always keep your head cool before shouting that everyone: teachers, docotrs, government - is making mistakes but you.

A Decent Adaptation, but a Little Short

[jgarrick · 7/10 · 12 July 2018]

Let me first note that I read the book before seeing this, so that is an aspect of my review. The movie, as it was, probably earned a solid eight. Performances by the cast were I suppose not exceptional, but were up to the task. I particularly enjoyed Carrie-Anne Moss as the mom. The always charming Chloë Grace Moretz turned in a workmanlike performance in an extremely challenging role. For those who don't already know it, the movie is based on the true story of Susannah Cahalan and her harrowing journey to find the cause of her mental breakdowns, seizures, hallucinations, and other symptoms, and the challenges her friends, coworkers, boyfriend, and family have of recognizing her illness and finding the right doctor. Once she reaches Doctor Kahn and, through her, Doctor Najjar, it plays like an episode of House as the medical team struggles to determine the root cause of her trouble, which proves to be an extremely rare and nearly unheard of disease. I only gave the movie a score of seven because, like House, it basically ends at the point where the correct diagnosis was found and really glosses over all the challenges she still faced recovering from it. Despite this flaw, it was still well worth the time to watch, and I'd further encourage anyone who has friends or family struggling with unexplained mental illness to not only watch the movie, but read Cahalan's book of the same name. Doctor Najjar's work, in particular, represents the cutting edge of 21st century medicine in this area.

Spot-on realistic drama

[Snootz · 7/10 · 16 August 2020]

What the negative reviews here do not understand is how very realistic and accurate this movie is. It's obvious some viewers came to be entertained... and missed the point of the movie entirely. This is not a movie intended to entertain; it is intended to inform and educate.

I had a close family member with undiagnosed major epilepsy for many years. There is nothing more frustrating than to have test after test after test, only to have supposed specialists look you in the eye and tell you "There's nothing wrong"... when very obviously something is wrong.

The downsides:

* The beginning and ending narratives could have been left out and the entire movie handled dramatically rather than using a cheap intro and exit. There is no "cheap intro" to mental illness. It can come on slowly or very quickly, but there is no convenient voice-over introduction.

* One scene of totally gratuitous nudity (without which this movie could have received a PG instead of PG-13 rating).

* The sudden far-too-short "picket fence" ending rather than the long-term, emotional, challenging-in-every-way recovery that was part of this process. Again the "cheap voice over exit" did the movie great disservice. I'd have liked to see another half hour added to it with a proper ending helping people to understand the entire thing, not just the hospital stay.

These issues are why I rate this 7 stars instead of 10. Nevertheless, what we see of the story was superbly done and deserves a nod of approval in making the public aware of some issues involved with mental illness-- not the least of which is medical incompetence and not caring enough about the patient to think outside the "standard diagnosis" box (something that I've seen over and over).

The acting was superb-- especially that of the main actress Chloe Moretz, who presented all issues from initial "blanking" to grand-mal seizures with astonishing realism.

The doctors were convincing. None of them were mean or had ill-intent; they were just incompetent and took a lot for granted. (Yes, I've significant observational experience with such medical staff. There's no end to the "we find nothing wrong" excuse rather than caring enough to find out what's wrong.) The frustration of the parents-- while seeming over the top-- quite realistic after going through so much garbage diagnosis they just couldn't take it any more. Not all people are like this... but such frustration is realistic.

In short, with the exceptions stated above this was a very well-written, well-directed and superbly-acted movie. If anyone wants to understand what people go through in a "brain fire" situation... this movie is about as good a presentation as I could imagine.

From a Doctor who focuses on a related condition

[chiggen-99509 · 10/10 · 24 June 2018]

Let me preface by stating I am a doctor who has devoted the last 10 years of my career to a closely related condition called PANDAS/PANS, which produces symptoms like Susannah's but in school-aged children. I know the real Dr. Najjar well and we refer patients to one another.

I think the movie must be judged on the public service it provides as much as a work of cinematic art.

I think the movie does a good job trying to depict what is happening in the head of Susanna as the disease takes hold. It tries to depict auditory hallucinations and epileptic phenomena, which only a small percentage of viewers have experience with. Just imagine the terror a person walking the busy, noisy streets of Manhattan must experience while experiencing intense auditory and visual hallucinations. The sad truth is, there are many many homeless people in big cities who are experiencing this every day.

The particular condition Susannah has is "rare", but there are thousands of people with the category of disease to which it belongs - so called "autoimmune encephalopathy" (AE). I think the movie shows a sharp contrast between 20th century psychiatry (psychoanalysis, drugs) and 21st century psychiatry, where a few pioneers like Najaar are actually looking for root causes.

Just to give you an idea of the importance of this condition, Columbia University Vagelos School of Medicine held a two day conference this past March on AE and PANDAS/PANS. I can tell you that EVERY person with a sudden change in mental status, with no prior history of the same, and no simpler explanation MUST be evaluated for AE and, in children, for PANDAS/PANS.

It just might save them for a needless lifetime of visits to the Cuckoo's Nest.

"We have to look at her brain."

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 5 March 2022]

This was a compelling story but perhaps told a little too simplistically. I kept wondering why Susannah Cahalan's (Chloë Grace Moretz) co-workers and family members weren't more questioning of her behavior whenever she zoned out, which was quite frequent. The seizures of course, couldn't go unnoticed, and by that time, the poor girl became hopelessly bedridden. The human brain is a fascinating subject, and this exploration of a rare medical condition brings to light one of the many things that can so easily go wrong with a person's body chemistry. Cinematically, this is not a great movie, but it tells a unique and engrossing story that fortunately has a happy ending for the principals involved.

Kinda disappointed

[l-69532 · 4/10 · 26 July 2017]

I read the book before the movie, and I think the path is too slow before the doctor realized what is her problem, it's the 95% of the movie.

The recovering process is the fascinating part in the book, I would like to see what she had been through, like she couldn't speak a full sentence, or spoke like a child, and how she got better, not just jumping to she's fully recovered.

Got the condition to a T

[kaitlynmarie-20439 · 10/10 · 15 August 2017]

SPOILER: I personally also have AE encephalitis. I also went undiagnosed for many years. To anyone in the past reviews who said it wasn't special, it is. They nailed the hallucinations you get. *hearing and seeing*, the seizures, panic attacks, mania, ocd like symptoms. Everything in this movie was very accurate. Anyone who says it wasn't necessary for making, it was. It's based off the book brain on fire: my month of madness. She was the 217th person ever to be diagnosed with this. We need more awareness. The actors were amazing. Chloe nailed the role and so did the father. The boyfriend was a bit irritating and the beginning is a lil slow but it picks up fast. And when it does, it's like beautiful art. 10/10 would recommend!!

Very captivating

[srgymrat33 · 7/10 · 10 March 2020]

I was super into this movie start to finish . Very interesting , extremely sad , you can feel the frustration from every party involved and incredible that it is a true story .

I would recommend this to everyone , intense start to finish and you learn a lot .

Why is everybody yelling?

[invisible_monsters-99482 · 2/10 · 8 August 2017]

This movie does not do justice to the book or to the diagnostic process or to mental illness and people that suffer from it.

I "like" how certain users are very opinionated about psychiatry, but completely miss the fact that she saw a neurologist and was admitted in a neurology ward (an epilepsy ward, nonetheless). The fact that her parents refused to admit her to a psychiatric hospital just because they didn't like the idea is just lucky in this case and promotes stigma. To have a certain psychiatric diagnosis first you need to exclude somatic causes (what was done in reality, with all the lab tests and imaging, but it is impossible to exclude everything, as there are a lot of disorders that might present themselves as psychiatric disorders. That does not mean that if you have a psychiatric diagnosis there is always another explanation).

She had an autoimmune disorder, which was treated accordingly with corticosteroids, plasmapheresis and immunoglobulin treatment. But before a definitive diagnosis you need to treat the symptoms at hand, and that is done with antipsychotics and mood stabilizers.

The acting tries to depict a family in crisis and a psychotic patient, but it fails miserably to capture the emotional tribulation and all the pain that a psychotic episode causes. All the yelling does not do that. If you read the book you can see her boss was very supportive and not at all as he is depicted and her parents were not yelling around the hospital demanding answers.

Only two starts, because as I said it does not do justice to the book and just romanticizes the entire thing.

You are better off reading the book than watching this.

The Critics Need a Lobotomy

[MTNmovieMan · 23 June 2018]

34 metascore?! Really? Were the critics thinking this film was about demonic possession done poorly, not as good as The Exorcist? Incredible that Wonder Woman, a fantasy piece of garbage, fetches a 75 mscore from these same inept and in-the-back-pocket critics. Shame on them!

Brain on Fire is based on an amazing, true and important story. It's not fiction Hollywood Reporter, Gaurdian, Variety, etc. Did you even watch it?!!!

This film hits all the marks; Incredible true story, top notch acting, directing, sound, editing, music, cinematography, yada yada yada. If you don't like it and don't respect it for its integrity at story telling please take your meds

An interesting dramatic insight into a rare disease

[salamone-edoardo · 7/10 · 16 March 2021]

Susannah, a promising reporter with a bright future ahead, suddenly starts facing strange symptoms, that progressively but quickly make her lose the touch with reality, compromising her job, her relationships and her family. The movie, inspirated from a real story, is the dramatic but realistic journey towards a diagnosis and, eventually, a treatment. The story is well put, the acting is on point, and it is very easy to be emotionally involved with the main character and her familiy; what is lacking is the pace, especially at the beginning the movie seems to jump too quickly towards the climax, leaving little time to know Susannah and the other characters.

It was okay

[nkishudak · 6/10 · 8 April 2020]

Why is an mri a big scary thing?! I have pelvis mri every year... about the movie; I have never read the book. I never heard of this story, accidentally saw the trailer on YouTube. It's an interesting movie, but won't watch it again. Currently having an ongoing problem too, lung problems and they don't know what causes, I have normal blood test,etc..but sometimes coughing up blood, many times having flu-kinda symptoms and memory loss. It's been now more than a year and they still don't know. Giving me false diagnoses. Doctors are human beings, I can relate to that too, and I am sure they're trying their best. I am glad she is feeling better. The movie worth to watch once. Nothing special. Actors are good. But I expected more. A real drama. It is somehow not.

Not Great, But Not Terrible Either

[socrates4 · 6/10 · 22 January 2019]

BRAIN ON FIRE is based on a book which is based on the true story of a woman suffering from an affliction of the brain, and her experiences with treatment. The film is not as good as I was expecting, but it still delivery some good moments and solid performances nonetheless.

I supposed I thought this would be better because of the true story aspect, so I was a little bit let down when it ended up feeling a bit like any other Hollywood film. It's still worth watching though, especially if you're interested in the subject matter. I have not read the book so I cannot speak to it on that level, but I'm guessing the book was better. Recommend to fans of medical dramas.

NOT YOUR AVERAGE DISEASE OF THE MONTH FLICK

[mmthos · 7/10 · 14 June 2020]

Xlnt little flick on little known brain disorder. Viewer feels the helplessness, hopelessness and fear, not only of the patient, but also of everyone else involved. Good secondary relationships too. Carrie Ann Moss stands out, as usual. Very scary, enjoyed it

This Movie Mirrors Our Experience With the Same Disease!

[vbjorklund · 10/10 · 23 June 2018]

This movie has been wrongly criticized for showing clueless doctors. However, this disease was not even identified by the World Health Organization until 2007 and was only named in 2009! My family member has in 2017 been diagnosed with this disease and it was his 47th doctor who diagnosed him!!! Thus, it is important for viewers to know the diagnosis journey depicted in Brain on Fire is REAL and NOT FICTIONAL and COMMON when it portrays how hard in the real world it is for well-known doctors to diagnose this disease so that it can be treated. This movie depicts two important messages: 1. Trust your gut if a doctor says something you disbelieve like "She must be drinking too much" or "She belongs in a mental hospital" and 2. Keep asking for the views of additional doctors until you get the Dr. House-like Dr. Najjar or his team who figures it out. FYI, Mt. Sinai Hospital researchers are currently conducting a study--independent of this movie but timely!--to report to their profession the high percentage of autoimmune encephalopathy patients who are incorrectly diagnosed with psychological disorders before eventually getting the autoimmune encephalopathy diagnosis and treatment. We recommend this movie especially to anyone interested in the diagnosis process and medical mysteries.

Most would not understand

[macnab-rob · 7/10 · 7 September 2020]

This movie resonates with me. As a parent, I know what it's like to watch the so called medical experts come to incomplete conclusions to proclaim misdiagnoses without considering ALL the facts.

Unbelievably bland

[burchett_22 · 3/10 · 25 April 2020]

The film takes it's entirety to tell you the diagnosis. During that time it's simply filled with snippets of symptoms that are tedious and repetitive. The film contains no real narrative other than the attempt at discovering the diagnosis of the main character.

Wow!!!

[billteller · 9/10 · 22 July 2021]

Not everyone will like his movie. No sex or nudity. No action. I remember no profanity. It's a medical mystery. It doesn't rush anything. It just tells the story. The cast was very good. It's a different film, but it's definitely worth the time to watch.

Great performance, Turn of the Story Sucks

[Tweetienator · 6/10 · 6 June 2017]

Great performance of Chloë Grace Moretz, she plays a writer struggling with a rare neurological disease. Imo the story (based on an real incident) is a greatly missed opportunity - it would have been a superb movie and performance of Moretz about someone getting psychotic, how one's world falls apart for one who got the mental state of schizophrenia.

A weak point of Brain on Fire imo is the underlying message (be it intended or not) that psychiatric illnesses and clinics are somewhat the worst thing that can happen to someone - the movie enforces the stigmata of being mental ill. For schizophrenia, for example, a fast help is essential for reducing the damage a psychotic episode causes on the brain - so in the case of the movie the decision of the parents was (luckily) right not to send the daughter into a psychiatric clinic, but if the case would have turned out that the daughter really had a psychotic episode the damage maybe would have been increased if she didn't get the right treatment.

In the end we get this happy ending story (even if it's a true story) which makes the movie a little cheesy - imo this movie could have been a classic if it would have focused on schizophrenia (which in many cases affects the life of the sick for months or years if not the whole life) and would show the consequences (for the ill and his family, friends etc.) of that illness to a greater audience. So the writer gets her treatment and all is good and back to normal - a typical Hollywood feelgood end - I guess people who spend their life in a psychiatric ward or are exhausted by their condition don't write bios.

Well, the typical happy ending and my daughter is not mental ill turn of the movie dragged it down to 6, with a more daring story about a serious matter like mental illnesses I would rate Brain on Fire 7 or even 8. Anyway, I enjoyed watching the movie.

Sorry, unrealistic

[MozzarElla77 · 3/10 · 18 December 2019]

I wanted to like it. The movie wanted to be liked. There were just too many unrealistic portrayals and interactions. As Susannah started showing signs of illness, her coworker and even her boyfriend were blind or incredibly dismissive and freaked out instead of showing more of an urgent concern. Parents, too. The actors portraying the parents showed uneven even a rapid cycling "bipolar" expression of emotion. The script was written as if it were a soap opera. Ending was simplistic and a sudden. Sadly it felt like a made for TV movie. The storyline was great and based on true story was impressive. 3 cheers though for the diversity of the cast!!!