Within the first 10 minutes of this film, Paul Dalio—who wrote, directed, edited, and scored this debut rom-dram about two poets with bipolar disorder—employs all known clichés used in movies about writers and movies about people with bipolar disorder. He does that work over the course of two parallel sequences.
Sequence one: Carla (Katie Holmes) wakes up in the middle of the night burning with poetic inspiration. There’s a metaphorical Holy Ghost devil flaming through her mind, and she’s the vessel through which it speaks. The only way to exercise that lyric demon-god is to use her trusty quill tip pen (no less!) to furiously scribble down its words onto a yellow legal pad (no less!). Does she like what she wrote down? NO SHE DOESN’T. What can she do? TEAR OUT THE PAGE AND CRUMPLE IT UP. Rinse. Repeat…
