Brain on Fire is an adaptation of Susannah Cahalan's autobiographical book, Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness. Released on Netflix in 2016, we rediscover a Chloë Grace Moretz where we did not expect her.
Imagine yourself without any control over your body, your mind, your way of reacting to the world. This is what happened to Susannah Cahalan.
As a young journalist at the New York Post, Susannah has everything to be fulfilled. She has a job that she enjoys and is trusted, a loving boyfriend, a supportive family. Her whole world turns upside down when she begins to suffer from strange ailments. Indeed, from a simple headache and some dizziness, his condition passes to strange behaviors and convulsions closer and closer. When she begins to see doctors, she is believed to have a life too full of excess and depression. However, her mental health begins to be affected and she becomes dangerous to herself and others. When she is hospitalized, she is believed to be mentally defective. Only a doctor will continue to look for what gnaws at her from the inside to find the Susannah of before.
Moretz is a surprise in this kind of film. Accustomed to seeing her in Hollywood movies, we did not expect her in this register. The surprise is nevertheless very good. She plays the role of Susannah perfectly. Narrator of the story as in the book, Susannah takes us with her. Throughout the film, misunderstanding takes hold of the viewer. Indeed, there are certain moments when the choice of the easy way out is made while at other times, the viewer cannot believe that this young woman is simply going crazy and he wants the doctors to push their research further and not abandon the young woman.
The other actors are erased. The production wanted to highlight Susannah and her point of view. The fact of integrating the spectator with her in her spiral of madness makes it possible to move the latter.
Gerard Barrett has adapted Susannah Cahalan's book to the screen. Susannah's message of hope, that of never giving up, is relayed in a script well stitched with Brain on Fire.
