SISTER(1999) a Portrayal of Mental

¶ … Sister"(1999) a portrayal of mental retardation in a family context

The film "The Other Sister" portrays a developmentally delayed woman named Carla Tate who has been extremely sheltered for most of her life, by both her family and her educational system. It should be noted that mental retardation is not a mental illness per se, although it is classified under the DSM-IV as possessing specific characteristics, depending on whether the individual has mild, moderate, or more severe forms of developmental difficulties. Carla has no physical limitations, can learn on a basic, elementary school level, is socially functional, is capable of self-care, and can function in society, thus she would be classified as mildly retarded, according to most standard psychological assessments.

The main problems, the film suggests, lie not with Carla's inherent abilities but the ways that Carla's family has reacted to her disorder, with a near-pathological sense of over-protectiveness. Because the family has another child of normal intelligence, the family tends to constantly measure Carla's functionality against their older daughter, who is highly capable, intelligent, and gets married over the course of the film. This family tension underlines the fact that mental retardation does not always have a clear, organic cause. Thus the fact that mentally challenged individuals often exist with in the context of a so-called normal home means that parents often have difficulties understanding what their child is or is not capable of achieving or understanding, in comparison to themselves or other siblings.

The film suggests that Carla is a highly functioning and compassionate woman, despite her disability. She has graduated from a technical school, and she maintains her own apartment. Her mother is not persuaded by these independent actions, and views Carla as far less functional than her relatively mild disability might indicate to an outside assessor. Carla has dreams and goals -- for example, she loves animals, and wishes to become a veterinarian's assistant. She is capable of forming friendships and romantic attachments outside of her family matrix. Emotionally, the film suggests, Carla is not inhibited by her handicap, nor is she any less sexual than another young woman of a similar age.

Despite the positive portrayal of mentally challenged individuals, Roger Ebert felt that the film's treatment of the condition was patronizing, particularly its schematic portrayal of the family, writing: "If there is a convincingly retarded character in the movie, it's the mother. She's borderline hysterical in insisting her daughter is not ready for junior college, dating, dancing, sex, living in her own apartment, or anything else...The details of 'The Other Sister" show a movie with no serious knowledge of retardation and no interest in learning or teaching," about what it is like to live as a mentally retarded person. (Ebert, 1999) The film relies on platitudes about the superior emotional sensitivity of the mentally challenged, rather than presents a convincing portrayal of persons who suffer from such a disability.

Ebert's quibble was not with the portrayal of mental retardation per se as being inaccurate but was more in line with the fact that the film suggested that mental retardation was cute and charming, such as the scene where Carla's boyfriend gets drunk, or where Carla tries to figure out sex from reading The Joy of Sex. The real confusions and strains that can afflict a mentally retarded person, and the fact that a mentally retarded person is not necessarily morally saintly or quaint and childlike in the eyes of the world goes unheralded by the film, Ebert suggests.

Does this have any impact upon assessing the film from a clinician's perspective? To some extent it does, because the film suggests that retarded persons are 'just like other people' and families are to blame for any assessment of their children's limitations. The parents are seen as unfairly judgmental of their child's ability, much in the same way that they might be overprotective of a normal child, in terms of the child's vocational or dating life. It is difficult to believe that Carla's school would not have met with Carla's parents and attempted to provide them with a realistic assessment of their daughter's abilities. Carla's mother reacts as if she never expected her daughter to grow up and pursue a career in the world, although presumably Carla's school, designed for high-functional mentally retarded persons, would have slowly introduced such a concept to her parents.