Infinitely Polar Bear
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Infinitely Polar Bear

The real-life memoir is a tricky thing to pull off in a film. Well, it’s not so tricky if your life has been action packed or you’ve been there for a great turning point in history. If, on the other hand, your story is about growing up in the ’70s with a manic depressive dad, then you might have your work cut out for you. Fortunately, writer / director Maya Forbes has a keen eye for the quirks of her childhood, and so this coming-of-age story has a few edges that are a little sharper than you might have expected.
When Amelia (Imogene Wolodarsky, Forbes’ daughter) sees her Professor father (Marc Ruffalo) running around their country home naked, her mother (Zoe Saldana) calmly explains that he’s just having a nervous breakdown. He goes off to hospital; Amelia and her sister go with their mother into poverty. Eventually he’s together enough to be released, but the marriage is over (despite them both clearly loving each other). Thing is, the only way their mother can make enough money to support a family is by going to business school, and the only way she can do that is by moving to New York on her own. Dad’s happy to take the kids in, but can he handle two increasingly wilful young girls? Of course not, otherwise there wouldn’t be a movie.
This is a low-key, gentle film where the point isn’t so much the drama of the situation as it is how everyone manages to muddle through ok. It’s a look at a loving family where their love gets them through some unusual situations; it’s also a chance to see Ruffalo in some truly hideous green shorts.