How Elle Fanning And Justice Smith Navigated Teen Mental Health In 'All The Bright Places'

How Elle Fanning And Justice Smith Navigated Teen Mental Health In 'All The Bright Places'




Get your tissues ready: All the Bright Places has arrived on Netflix plus it is an emotional ride. Based on the book by Jennifer Niven, the movie follows two teens in small-town Indiana, Violet (Elle Fanning) and Finch (Justice Smith), as they learn to seek life’s aesthetics by way of the doldrums of wandering — even any time life’s aesthetics feels hopelessly out of reach.


While I mention it’s emotional, I mean it: This story deals with death and suicide.


The stakes are high from the outset of the film. In the initial scene, Violet is standing atop a bridge’s ledge, visibly shaken and meditatively watching the water below. Not a moment also soon, Finch walks up in back of her, recognizing the girl from school. “What are you doing?” He asks, startling Violet back to reality. Finch jumps on the ledge next to her, lowering the intensity of the moment without ignoring the weightiness of it, then reaches for Violet’s hand with a charismatic kick back of his head, inviting them to step back to solid ground together.


That’s where this bond begins; reluctantly, for Violet, who is slowly returning to the real world right following the sudden death of her sister, and eagerly, for Finch, who is drawn to a person in need of the same relentless kindness he needs for himself. Back at school, the two partner up on an assignment that requires them to “wander Indiana.” What unfolds from on there really is a complete first-love story — from intrusive self-discovery, through a pretty roller coaster ride, all of the way to profound heartache — which happens to be quite reflective of the intensity of your average high school experience.


Michele K. Short/Netflix
“I was also experiencing my first love at that point in time any time If I read the book,” Fanning, who also serves as a producer on the project, tells MTV News. “And that first love... It seemed like, a very big, heartbreaking, tumultuous thing, and thus my emotions were especially heightened at the time. And just feeling all that, I just felt like, oh, this is exactly what it's like.”


Running concurrent to Violet and Finch’s love story are their individual paths to self-acceptance. While Violet is discovering how to continue living any time her sister cannot (with a heavy assist from Finch’s ability to find wonder in the wander), Finch is dealing with his own internal monologue — which Smith illustrates as sounding something like, “I’m so different from each person else, and I’m going through this alone, and each person else is normal...” — As he struggles to find his sense of self-worth through counseling sessions, numerous Post-Its scrawled with reminders of happiness, and his loving bond with Violet.


“I know what it is attempt to find yourself in a place that is attempting to define you,” Smith says, relating to his character’s journey.


“Honestly, we all go through it,” Fanning says. “But society wants to look at mental health as this weird, atypical thing, and it's so fully not odd. It is so common.”


All the Bright Places aims to highlight the significance of caring for your mental health at a time any time judgement usually come from every angle — from your classmates, your teachers, your parents — and as soon as the adults in the room think that you can’t possibly know who you are, what you want, or what you feel. It aims to legitimize teenage angst by speaking from the perspective of the misunderstood teen, and so, giving value to that often concealed experience.


Walter Thomson/Netflix
“I think it's critical to open up about what you're going through,” Smith says. “I think it's essential to know that you're not alone while you go through tragedy, that there really are usually people there to aid you, who love you, who aspire to be able to see you happy, who want the ideal for you. And I think the film really is just attempting to drive house how key community is and bonding with other people is, and why that's the ticket to healing.”


And although the film doesn't end with a happily ever right after, there’s an optimism peeking out from in back of the sadness. “You never know whenever you're going to find that person that's going to assist you, or bring you out of yourself, or make you look at things in a different way,” Fanning says. “And that compassion and understanding really... You could find that in anyone.”


Do yourself a favor and watch this one on a Friday or Saturday night; you could require a day to recover from the story’s emotional swings, or perhaps you’ll be inspired to go out and wander on your own. All the Bright Places is streaming right now on Netflix.


If you or someone you know is struggling with their emotional health, head to halfofus.Com for ways to get help.









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