Critical Movie REVIEW

Family Systems Theory: Critical Movie Review
Candidate’s Name
Institution’s Name
The Plot
The movie “Canvas’ is about the Marino’s family living in Southern Florida. John, the dad, is a lower-class person grappling with life and the wife, Mary has schizophrenia (Holden, 2007). The couple has a son, Chris, who also grapples to find his personality while coping with the mom’s sickness. At the start, the mother tries to connect to the son via her artwork but the son is frustrated since the mother constantly paints a similar picture repeatedly, a lighthouse since it is this place that represents the last periods she was able to be a mom to his son truly. Mary refuses to take her medicines and at one point she became extremely paranoid and unintentionally injured Chris (Holden, 2007). She is then hospitalized. Chris and his dad try to unite the family but fail. The father builds a yacht to find consolation and distract himself. Chris engages in sewing clothes. Thus, they are not connecting. The mother’s sporadic visitations become disastrous, and the household almost breaks down when Chris in fury damages the yacht his dad has been making. Besides, the father loses his work, and he ultimately understands that he is all that Chris has and he endeavors to bond with Chris (Holden, 2007).
Lead Characters
The movie is about the Marino’s family comprising of John, the father, Mary, the mother and Chris, the couple’s son. Mary has been used to create a challenge to the family, schizophrenia illness.

It is this challenge that threatens the existence of Marino’s family. Threatened by Mary’s illness, John and Chris became disconnected, and everyone does its things separately without unity.
Family Dynamics Portrayed In the Movie
As per the Strategic Family Therapy, normal households, similar to every living structure, rely on two crucial things; firstly, households uphold integrity despite environmental problems by way of negative reaction (Nichols & Davis, 2017). Normal families subsist with an articulate structure. In the Marino’s family, it faces an environmental challenge of Mary’s illness; however, it does not uphold its integrity and thus may be considered as an abnormal family. The members, Mary, John, and Chris, are adversely affected by the illness. As per this theory, normal families possess means for a positive response, and this theory recognizes that the conduit for response is communication (Nichols & Davis, 2017). Therefore, normal households can adjust to challenges since members can communicate openly and are adaptable. In the Marino’s family, the members are disconnected and are unable to communicate effectively due to the disunity created by Mary’s illness; everyone acts alone after the hospitalization of Mary.
As per this theory, symptomatic households are viewed to be ensnared in dysfunctional communication structures (Nichols & Davis, 2017). In the Marino’s family, John and Chris have a communication problem; they seem to act disjointedly, and they stick to their inflexible habits as well as react to variation as a negative response. Thus, they regard changes (Mary’s hospitalization due to schizophrenia) as a threat, not as development opportunities (a chance to reconnect and unite).
Cultural Issue Portrayed In the Family
The Marino’s family portrays the culture of how ordinary people struggle and battle the impacts of mental disease within their families. It represents the real, ordinary people tussling with the daily life’s facets while striving to manage something overwhelming as well as possibly distressing and damaging.
References
Holden, S. (2007). Canvas – Movie – Review. Nytimes.com. Retrieved 29 December 2016, from HYPERLINK “http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/12/movies/12canv.html” http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/12/movies/12canv.html
Nichols, M. P., Davis, S. (2017). Family Therapy: Concepts and Methods, 11th Edition. [Bookshelf Online]. Retrieved from https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/9780133826883/