The film itself differs from most films but underneath its surprising entertaining and at times very funny. James Franco is an absolute astonishing talent of an actor as well as the rest of the cast. More people should watch this film as it opens up the every day struggles of mental illness. I laughed, i cried and i was never bored despite the slow-pace of the film; ive come away feeling satisfied. Overall i would recommend to anyone who has experienced mental illness or even anyone who has a enhanced understanding of what it actually means to be cursed with a bad mental health.

"Maladies" was slow but I never felt bored.

(I reveal some parts of the story but it's not like the movie is based on the surprise of these things happening such that knowing them would really "spoil" the movie, it's not a mystery or anything, but be forewarned.)

One thing that people say about this movie is it is about mental illness and although it is mentioned a few times and the portrayal of the characters is unusual I didn't see them necessarily as "mentally ill" in any way--they might have been, but also, maybe not. It just focused on people who themselves are focused on doing "work" which they found meaningful, living in a house together.

It did have a lot of expression of what the James character was thinking, but what's mentally ill about that? Don't most people walk around thinking about things?

Just because the movie is focused on the psychology of its characters doesn't mean there is anything psychologically "wrong" with them.

I myself was very interested in this being mostly about what people think about things. Near the beginning they show James musing about the "tall" water glass Catherine requests. I think that it is very human to show how people really have momentary thoughts about almost everything around them.

Some say the conclusion didn't work but I thought it was a fascinatingly surreal approach, where one character becomes emotionally unsettled and that manifests in something being "wrong" in the story which attracts the police, because we all know that the police are in the world to intervene and try to "solve" problems. I thought the fact that Carter refused to make this literal, maybe showing cuts where James really WAS doing something dangerous, like wavering a knife around, was brave and interesting.

In the end James is so damaged by his disturbance he dies...don't we all sometimes feel like something bothering us could lead to some kind of "end"? "When she left me I thought my life was over." Showing this as ACTUAL death just made it more poignant.

I thought that sound was used brilliantly to complement the action.

There is one scene that shows Delmar, played by David Straithairn, as he realizes that there is no way for him to join in and experience the joy and pleasure others are experiencing just from dancing to a song, that I thought was emotionally devastating.

I found it to be a unique and worthwhile "experimental" type movie, and I got a lot out of it. If you demand action or an explicit narrative from movies you may not like it as much, but if you aren't obsessed with such things this movie has a lot to offer in ways rarely seen in film.

Despite two main pretensions in the form of unnecessary captions and a few over the top voice overs, the movie raises good points regarding mental illnesses and the borders between normality, perversion and infliction. captions are used too widely and do not work when one of the characters has to repeat them during the following scene. the queer issue is nicely addressed, and not too salient. the directing is very good- a few shots and a few scenes are remarkably done. most characters are round and well written as well as acted. Catherine Keener is great as always, and David Straithairn as Delmar is a quite surprising strong character. the second part of the movie, starting with a compelling scene in which the mane character (James Franco) meets a blind old woman at the beach, is considerably better than the first part. the ending is a bit unrealistic, but works. very nice and observant cinematography most of the time, that serves the themes of the film well.