Only those who have been diagnosed with a physical, mental, neurological, or cognitive illness truly understand what it’s like to have it. They live with the symptoms every day and have also seen first-hand the impact it has on those around them.

However, this isn’t to say that actors haven’t done their research. When it comes to portraying illnesses on the big screen, many film critics would say that the following movies stand out for all the right reasons:

The Bucket List (2007)

The Bucket List is a 2007 comedy-drama starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, playing two terminally ill men who meet in a hospital. They make a list of everything they want to do before they die and go on a road trip around the world.

The film doesn’t offer a medically gritty portrayal of terminal illness, such as having to use resources like https://www.lungcancergroup.com/legal/lung-cancer-lawyer/ and not having the physical stamina for travel. However, it does highlight how making plans gives terminally ill patients a sense of control and hope when their illness threatens to take that from them. It also shows the stages of grief, allowing you to watch the characters move through anger and denial before eventually reaching acceptance.

A Beautiful Mind (2001)

The 2001 biographical drama, A Beautiful Mind, follows the brilliant mathematician John Nash, who won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. While the film undoubtedly follows his achievements, it also shows his battle with severe paranoid schizophrenia.

You’re placed inside John Nash’s mind, which makes his hallucinations feel true and logical to him before his diagnosis is revealed. The film also shows the true impact that mental illness can have on relationships and the challenges of managing symptoms over curing them.

The Aviator (2004)

The Aviator is a 2004 biographical drama starring Leonardo DiCaprio as the billionaire filmmaker and aviation pioneer, Howard Hughes. While the film focuses on his movie career and flying achievements, it also centers on his severe obsessive-compulsive disorder and mysophobia, or fear of germs.

The movie shows a progressive escalation of symptoms from his childhood, in which his mother bathed him during a cholera outbreak, and then continued through the slow creep of early habits and a trauma response to high-stress events, like a near-fatal plane crash.

However, rather than making mental illness the punchline of the movie, directors were able to brilliantly illustrate how a desperate need for control and compulsive loops take control over someone.

Still Alice (2014)

Still Alice is a 2014 drama film following 50-year-old linguistics professor Alice Howland, who is diagnosed with early-onset familial Alzheimer’s disease. The movie follows her decline and its impact on her husband and three grown children.

The film portrays the illness exceptionally well by shifting the perspective directly to Alice. The audience can see her internal fears relating to cognitive decline, the grief associated with losing her identity, and the changing dynamics of her family. The first-person viewpoint is far less common in films, and it highlights subtle early signs, emotional truth, and coping mechanisms.

No actor will truly be able to highlight someone’s authentic plight as they live with a serious or terminal illness. However, through research and with great care, the actors in the films above have provided audiences with insight into some of the most heartbreaking and challenging illnesses that hundreds of thousands of people around the world live with every day. 

Main image photo by Kirill Fokin on Unsplash