A Movie & Memory

The movie I watched which questions the ability to remember and distinguish reality from illusion was "Changeling" starring Angelina Jolie. Memory does play a big role in this movie. The main character played by Jolie, Christine Collin's, son goes missing. After months of not hearing any news she is told that her son was found and is on a train to see her. Upon the reunion between mother and son, Christine does not recognize the boy. She is told over and over again that the boy has changed quite a bit and that she simply isn't remembering him because she is in shock. Christine continues to insist that the police have not found her child and they have given her the wrong child. The situation causes the viewer to question whether Christine is in fact mentally ill as a result of her child's abduction or if she is correct.

In the movie, the Los Angeles Police Department describe Christine as having "paranoia, delusions or persecution, and dislocation from reality". They say she "may be a threat to herself or others". She is also "recommended to be conveyed to a psychopathic ward until her senses can be restored". Initially, these symptoms sound similar to those of schizophrenia and in fact in the movie the police are trying to make her appear psychopathic so they can lock her away in a mental hospital. Really what would be most suited to her condition would be psychogenic amnesia. Psychogenic amnesia is situation specific and occurs as a result of an extremely stressful or traumatic experience. Christine could not be able to recognize her son because she was so traumatized by his abduction in the first place. The movie isn't trying to make Christine appear schizophrenic or like she has amnesia. To fully understand one will need to watch the movie and see how the police are trying to make her look crazy in order to hide their mistake when in fact we know that Christine is right and has proof that the child isn't her son.

Overall I really enjoyed the movie. I don't think that I learned a lot about memory from it. It is hard to know if she is accurately portraying any memory illness because she is really being framed to appear that way. If anything I learned a good story from history as the movie is based on real life events from the 1930s.
However I did gain some emotional understanding from the film. I saw how traumatic it would be to lose a child and I do think that an experience like that could definitely cause psychogenic amnesia. The movie also portrays how far a mother would go to find her lost child.