I Am Fine, Thanks (2021) User Reviews

A tad too long to keep attention

[aurimasvisockis · 6/10 · 29 January 2023]

It is a movie about a female researcher suffering from PTSD (however, the movie lacked to tell the viewer what caused the PTSD) and only recently having been released from psychiatric care after a worse episode, but the gist of it is, she never told anyone that she was in hospital, everyone thought that she took a vacation abroad. So, when she returns to her life, she sees that everything is falling apart and those PTSD episodes are slowly returning to a climactic point in the end.

Overall, I would describe the movie as surfing though filth and nothing but filth; depression on depression, melancholy on melancholy, only to in the end do a one-eighty and have a dramic-comedy scene. Well, I guess it's your standard go-to Lithuanian movie... Did I like it? Eh, it wasn't terrible, a solid 6 out of 10, but if this was on cable tv, I would change the channel after the first commercial break.

Ladies, cultivate your female friendships!

[greerlovesgovert · 9/10 · 19 April 2023]

I LOVED THIS FILM!!

I live in Canada and I watched "I Am Fine, Thanks" as part of my city's annual Baltic/Nordic film festival. I think there's a bond among us northerners, we persevere despite the lack of warmth and light.

I can find Lithuania on a map, but that's everything I know about the place. When the Lithuanian cultural attaché introduced "I Am Fine, Thanks" last night, I wasn't even certain it would look like a professional film, then it proceeded to blow me away.

Beautifully shot and acted, with some terrifying scenes that made my pulse race, it finished with a strong takeaway life lesson. I've already told many friends about it, but where could they possibly see it except at a film festival?

For me, this film preached the value of women maintaining strong, supportive friendships with other women. Too often, we invest in being daughters, wives and mothers, relationships that drain us rather than sustain us. Instead of her burdensome family and brutish boyfriend, if Maria had a close group of lady friends, people who knew how much she valued her work as a scientist, people she could drink some wine with and rant a bit, she would have been happy and contented rather than anxious and self doubting.

Even the IMDB summary gets it wrong:

"A charismatic neuroscientist, Maria returns home after two months of treatment for anxiety and panic attacks. However, Maria's come back is not without bumps in the road. Her study colleague removes her from the research she has been working on for many years, her mother is in the hospital and her fiancé is pressuring her to finally start planning their own family."

No one is pressuring Maria to start planning a family! She's a scientist, happily dedicated to serving humanity through science, but the assumption is that unless a woman has a baby, she can't possibly be fulfilled or happy. What bunk! Angela Merkel would obviously disagree.

Ladies, cultivate your female friends and remake the world. I plan to find this director's previous work. See this film if you have the chance.

Greer.

Incredible human drama story

[daivababile · 10/10 · 1 February 2023]

This is just an incredible movie. The plot is tense, with some humor parts in it. I would call it psychodrama, with the elements of social-cultural-generational issues underlying. I liked the scenes where the main actress experiences anxiety and panic attacks - they are so intense,they convey what a person is experiencing during those moments.

The plot covers it all, or at least to me. Maybe because I study psychoterapy, or maybe because I am human being. The relationship with some light form of abuse, rejection by parents, trying to be perfect, infidelity, putting on the mask 'I am fine', shame and guilt. Will watch it again, it gave me tinggles in my body. Brilliant Lithuanian team work!