David and Lisa

A plenty risky thing 2 ask viewers 2 identify w/ 2 mentally ill protagonists, much less ones whose stubbornly fixed (& a bit cartoonish) symptoms allow little, if any, entry-points 4 emotional connection. So although I found the staccato pacing sluggish & Lisa's puppy-like ways frustrating, I've got to give it credit 4 daring: it never begs - heck it doesn't even ask -4 its audience's affection. The best thing about it is David, whose supercilious bark cuts through the film's bleakly sober tone

What a gem of a movie! Several excellent performance highlight this drama about 2 teens in a mental institution. I also loved the cinematography, editing and pacing.

CUCKOO'S NEST raged against institutions and authorities of all kinds. This film is more transitional: rejecting the repressive aspects of bourgeois society but still affirming the curative nature of love and understanding. A decade earlier, my father worked at Philadelphia State Hospital (Byberry) and told some memorable stories about his time. Despite Eleanor's background in psychiatric social work, and Rubin being a psychiatrist, the representation of mental illness seems quite Hollywoodised.

Off putting

Sensacional e muito à frente do seu tempo em relação à doenças mentais.

Barely average, if even that, though the framing and architecture is sometimes nice. No one involved really swings for the fences. Dullea and Margolin look like they're having a little too much fun playing the mentally ill.

Well-intentioned, and the girl is ridiculously pretty, but as a serious look at mental illness it is pretty dated.

Once widely praised, now a minor classic at best, this little film deals with the relationship of David, who can't be touched, and Lisa, who only speaks in rhyme. The treatment of mental illness is damnably pat, the acting variable, the script thin and the directing crude (with a gross overuse of blackouts); still, Keir Dullea and especially Janet Margolin shine through the material when they can, and at choice moments, one still feels the basic power of the story. Lovely score by Mark Lawrence.

underrated pure love story. if you like benny & joon or harold and maude, you really love this one.