The Psychology of the Film The Other Sister

"The Other Sister"(1999) is a film about a mentally retarded girl named Carla Tate (Julliete Lewis) who is the youngest daughter of three in a well-to-do San Fransisco family. Returning from a school geared for cases like her, her family tries to make her fill at home. Carla, feeling the need to be independent, starts on a path of a career and love. She gets her own apartment, and by the end of the movie she gets married.

As far as the movie relates to developmental disorders; it did ok. It chronicled a single case and how she reacted to returning to her family. It also did well in showing how she acts in society and deals with independence.

I felt the film was more centered on the mother's reaction than anything. This was fully evident at her outburst during Carla's birthday party. I fell that she felt remorseful for sending her needful daughter off for so long. When she returned she tried to make it up to her. She was also extremely over protective. This was apparent when she was resentful at anything Carla tried to do, like move out, date, or even go to school. Her mother wanted her to be like her other daughters not only so she could have a normal daughter, but also because she wanted to raise her just like them in order to give her her own attention.

The film was good. It was definitely made for entertainment. They writers probably had only nominal experience with the mentally challenged and not enough to make a very detailed and accurate movie to express the heart ache in raising a daughter with a disorder like that as a fully functional person.