Mental illness has seen its share of films in the last few years as well.
Take Shelter
Jane Eyre
The Beaver
The Defendor
Super
Brothers
Shelter Island
It's Kind Of A Funny Story
Black Swan
The Dark Knight
Sucker Punch

Saint716: Why do you think that is? Is there a sense within our culture that society is somehow going mad and these stories somehow explore that? Is the experience of modern life somehow making us all a bit crazy and - again - we look to stories to examine that? Thoughts?

Thoughts?

Just crazy ones...

Kind of like a thriller take on Field of Dreams, perhaps?

@Darren: Yeah. "It's Field of Dreams meets Psycho!"

"If you build it, they will die!"

@Teddy: Winner!

You know, I just lobbed this trailer up onto the blog because I literally just saw in the theater last night for the first time and thought it was interesting. But this discussion has brought up two really interesting topics which I shall continue with later.

So thanks, all, for your thoughts!

I saw this at Sundance and it was one of the best films I've seen in long time. The tension had me gripping my chair. It's easily in my top five for this year, maybe even number one!

Here's my review: (I even talk about some of the societal themes, which the director said he intended to symbolize.)

http://timessquare.com/Film/Film_Reviews/Sundance_Review:_Take_Shelter/

From the review:
"Anxiety takes over the mood of the film. Are these dreams prophetic, or is Curtis losing his mind? The psychological balance is a tricky one that Take Shelter pulls off beautifully. Americans can relate to this theme. “Why do I feel so anxious all the time? There’s something wrong but I can’t quite figure it out.” It seems to be a mood that has taken over our national consciousness. Whether it be the bad things that happen “out there,” an ever bleak economy, or just a feeling in the air; something feels off to most of us. At least that’s what the film’s creators hypothesize. And I see substance in the idea. Curtis is the symbolic personification of our collective anxieties."

I thought it sort of had a DONNIE DARKO vibe...

@Nick: I updated the OP to include a link to your review of the film. Thanks for that.

Thank you Scott!

@RonC - I could see that now, but DD is the last thing I thought of watching this.

I saw the trailer on YouTube a couple of weeks ago and since then I'm anxiously awaiting the movie to come out.

We have nothing to fear except fear itself. I mean, just look at the stock markets, if something happens somewhere in the world, people and nations are losing money just because some brokers shit bricks. It's all in their heads, not even real money... I think that is at least somehow connected to the appeal of the movie. Our irrational subconcious fear anything could happen to us just out of nowhere and we can't do anything about it. And if we prepare ourselves for the potential desaster to come without any particular reason but only because of fear, people think we're crazy.

The cynic in me says it's an easy way out. Why did the character act that way? They're crazy. But behind all that, may be a lazy writer.

The fear of your own sanity is common and base. Which makes it an easy tool to manipulate an audience. Pity rooted in empathy preying on fear is faster than any narrative setup.

Extremes without consequences for their characters means the writer doesn't have to moralize. Because as we all know, if you're crazy it's not wrong, you just didn't know any better.

If modern life is making us crazy, spending a wad on going to the theatre and looking to the lit majors and camera operators of modern Hollywood for a source of analysis isn’t going to help.

I believe in the power of film. There are stories which help us understand ourselves. But they have to be separated from the ones by lazy writers.

Insanity is a difficult topic to handle well. In part because it does lend itself to lazy writing, to a kind of deus ex machina in regard to character motivation. Or to lots of boring clinical scene with a shrink, or just use of psychobabble.

But when it's well done, it's more of an unreliable narrator. It makes us uncertain of the validity of events. And even after we realize they may be (or are) crazy, we still may wonder if certain elements were real. Or if the messed up reality didn't cause the crazy. Or they aren't really crazy but everyone thinks they are.

As to the appeal - the US and Britain both have larger and larger numbers of people taking drugs for mental illness (mostly bipolar or depression) - the numbers of people on disability for mental illness have increased from from one in 184 to one in 76, which is a huge cultural adjustment.