I gave up on this film after 10 minutes..., but then I went back because Diana Ross is amazing in it as Pauline, and because the topic of mental health is important to me. My main complaints: The film sensationalizes violent episodes and is too biased toward one particular drug being a successful treatment for mental health issues versus counseling, which is given little focus. It wouldn't surprise me to hear that the film was sponsored by drug companies that manufacture Clozapine. I wish they had done a better job showing the suffering people go through trying to wean themselves off psychiatric drugs. Also, the expression of emotion has a powerful healing effect, and Pauline showed plenty of healthy emotion (mostly crying), but drugs actually interfere with emotional healing most of the time, not enhance it, so the film is misleading in this sense. On the plus side: Looking past the exaggerated violence, we get to see the internal struggle and relationship issues. We see Pauline's isolation as well as her openness (e.g. telling her 10 year-old daughter what it's like, and apologizing to her angry sister). I loved the particular staff member who "rescued" Pauline with warmth and tough love. My lesson: Most of us pass by in fear or apathy when we see homeless or "crazy" people. Pauline's behavior in the last scene shows we have another choice, if not to help them, at least to feel some compassion.

Diana Ross is gripping as a 42-year-old woman just finished with her third year of medical school who is sidelined by a particularly destructive bout of paranoid schizophrenia, a condition she's aware of and has lived with since her mid-20s. The delusions and voices come and go, but when a kindly doctor intervenes with a new drug, Ross has a chance to actually rebuild her life. A sensitive, educational TV-film that strives--and perhaps stresses a might too hard--to teach the viewer something about mental illness (as well as the shame family members feel about the disease, and their eventual acceptance of it). It's a heady acting vehicle for La Ross: she takes on this highly dramatic, unglamorous (and some may say well-trodden) role and gives it bitterness, rage, confusion and, finally, hope. The narrative is engineered to relay the overall goodness of our medical community (which may seem like a stretch to Ross' character, having been hospitalized over 40 times), while the writing is occasionally too flowery. Still, a disturbing and moving effort, with a gem of an ending.

I remember when I first saw this and thought this is the piece that will re-energize Diana Ross' acting career. An argument can be made that it is her best acting performance ever! even better than "Lady". For the simple reason is that there was no singing, or music for that matter in this film. Diana had to draw on other things to pull this off. And pull it off she did.. Why she didn't receive major accolades for this role is perplexing. Also this made for t.v movie has been locked in a vault somewhere for the last decade. I can't recall ever seeing this replayed again on t.v. The subject matter is very serious and reaches millions of people. It was handle well and with integrity. And the lead performance was as strong as any seen on the small screen.. So why has this performance and film been socio overlooked over the years? Very disappointing...

this film is really about longterm illness, or "loss of life" and the devastation it causes. the character was a brilliant, vivacious young woman. when she was born the doctor said this child has been "touched by god" because she was so beautiful. noone was sharper, nobody was quicker than Paulie. she was going to be a doctor, in her 3rd year of medical school. and then she got schitzophrenia. 18 years later she wakes up. shes 43, not 25 any more. shes lost 18 YEARS of her life. her life doesnt exist anymore. - her sister is a middle aged woman, who resents her for the way shes behaved, her mother is resigned to the fact her daughter is mentally ill. and she has a daughter she doesnt know, whom shes never known. the story is heartbreaking. Diana Ross is convincing, and the script is accurate. it may not be the best film about schitzophrenia, but as a view of the consequences, and the effects, it is well worth watching.