Is To the Bone a true story

By Jenn Director Knudsen | For The Oregonian/OregonLive

Índice Show

How accurate is To the Bone?
What was To the Bone based on?
Who is the movie To the Bone based on?
Why did Megan lose her baby in To the Bone?

My freshman year in college I had vivid dreams of fluffy waffles, wrote poetry about chocolate chip cookies, and spent a lot of time planning meals full of food I no longer allowed myself: fried chicken, cheese-filled pastas, french fries, pizza and, for dessert, the densest of flourless chocolate cakes.

These memories about my battle with anorexia nervosa bubbled to the surface while viewing "To the Bone," Netflix's new, controversial film whose main character nearly dies while starving herself.

Some fear the film will promote anorexia. Others believe "To the Bone" will be for eating disorders generally what "13 Reasons Why," another Netflix film, is for teen suicide: a catalyst for tough discussions about a topic that should not remain closeted. I see it both ways. And yet ...

Based on my experiences, I do not recommend this film. It does nothing to dissuade those embarking on disordered eating, or fully in its throes, from continuing. It also doesn't offer a message of hope for recovery.

"To the Bone" is ambitious and has good intentions. It presents the myriad reasons girls and women -- and, yes, boys and men -- sink into eating disorders. Difficult family situations. An art or sport that promotes extreme thinness. Budding sexuality. Body dysmorphia (seeing your body as fat, for example, when you're actually underweight). Perceived lack of control over life situations that manifests in controlling calorie intake and calorie-burning output.

And the film demonstrates in memorable dialogue and searing images just how intractable eating disorders can be.

The character Luke, after eight months of inpatient treatment for anorexia in the not-subtly named clinic Threshold, still calls the dining room "the torture chamber." Another character, Megan, who's spent years in and out of treatment, suffers a miscarriage because her malnourished body cannot sustain a new life. Ellen, 20, the film's main wasting-away character, incessantly runs stairs and does sit-ups in bed. She's also bottle-fed by her oft-absent mother at the end of the film in a candle-lit "Grapes of Wrath"-ian scene of desperation.

But too much of "To the Bone" is far too stylized.

Ellen cakes on the eye makeup and maintains very slick and thick eyebrows and hair. (Once I stopped getting my period, my hair, by contrast, became stringy and broke off at my shoulders. These are but two symptoms of clinical anorexia.)

Ellen also wears stylish clothes -- ripped jeans and bohemian sleeves that hang past her wrists and, in one scene, a trendy wool cap. All the layers are meant to show how cold she is, with a body devoid of fat, but fashion-conscious teens or women might see only the au courant mismatched patterns and plaids over Ellen's pencil-thin legs and deflated breasts.

During eating scenes, Ellen does nothing to hide her behavior. She makes a spectacle of scraping food around her plate, loudly cutting breaded chicken into smaller and smaller pieces. A disturbing restaurant take shows her shoveling big forkfuls of food into her mouth, chewing for the taste, and then spitting the masticated balls into a napkin held at eye level.

To me, this didn't ring true. No way would I have been caught with my eating-disorder tactics on full display.

I sneaked out of sight to exercise. I ate (the bare minimum) with dorm mates at mealtimes but never, ever accepted an invitation to a cafe, restaurant or frozen-yogurt joint. Pizza? Heck no. The library's uppermost floor became my refuge; I hid there to study for hours to distract my mind from my painfully knotted stomach and to avoid any place where I might smell food.

Purposeful starving is horrible. It's not just hunger. It's constantly battling your brain that's willing you to eat, and being unable to sleep for hunger pangs. It's losing friends. It can mean losing your life.

Regaining my health took a long time, a solid decade and then some. But I did it. I sought therapy, I got rid of my scale, I talked myself into eating what had become verboten foods, and I had the incredible support of my roommates, my boyfriend (now my husband of 21 years), and my mom and sister.

There is hope, tons of it.

"To the Bone" offers none. Its characters are on a figurative treadmill with no "off" button. That is the reality for some who suffer eating disorders. But not for all. A feature film should lose the soft lighting when depicting eating disorders and offer a brighter message about recovery. My movie would portray my reality and that of many who've recovered: folks who once struggled with putting food in their mouths but eventually learned to once again chew, swallow, keep it down, and be fine about that.

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How accurate is To the Bone?

To The Bone accurately portrays some of the aspects of living with an eating disorder. I do not believe the film overly glamorizes anorexia. It illustrates the mindset and some of the mental anguish of someone with an eating disorder. The film displays a number of common eating disorder behaviors.

What was To the Bone based on?

In March 2016, Lily Collins was announced to have been cast in a leading role in an anorexia drama film titled To the Bone, written and directed by Marti Noxon, based on Noxon's experiences with the eating disorder. The film marks Noxon's feature directorial debut.

Who is the movie To the Bone based on?

At age 78, Dr. Richard MacKenzie is having his Hollywood moment. He's the physician who helped inspire a controversial Netflix movie about anorexia, “To the Bone,” which begins streaming on Friday. The film was written and directed by one of his former patients, Marti Noxon.