DiD Review

Mental illness is a very real problem in society today. Diagnosis of the problems people have is on the rise, although many question the validity of some of the more recent claims psychologists make about the human condition. One of the biggest controversies is over DiD (Dissociative Identity Disorder) or Multiple Personality Disorder. While there are some documented cases, the vast majority have been found to be false claims. Something that criminals sometimes use to try and get out of responsibility for the crimes they commit. If they were not in control, they can not be held responsible.

Which is why it is so controversial. It is extremely hard to prove as existing and only happens in rare cases. And that makes it an interesting case for filmmakers to use. Interesting but like the disorder itself, hard to truly pull off. More often then not filmmakers use a green screen to make it work. The ability to use green screen and use a single person for multiple personalities is an effective technique when the story calls for a split in a character's moral code. You just have to give the audience something to distinguish between the two sides of the character's conflict.

More recently there have been a number of shows which try to use that technique to talk about DiD and it can be very effective when used properly. Unfortunately, I don't think that DiD really uses it properly. The motivations of the differing personalities is somewhat unclear. One is angry at their mother, one does not speak and the other is trying to honor their mother's memory. But the question is why?

That is never full explored in this film. Something happened to them, that much is obvious and they are conflicted about how to deal with it. But why? The fact that they are able to use green screen towards the end of this film suggests that they had the ability to do something more difficult and knew enough to make it work but they did not.

More dialogue between the differing personalities would have make it work much better in my opinion. The description explains more about what is happening in the film then the film itself. If you came to it completely blind without the description you would be very much confused as to what is going on.

Even still, it is a very ambitious film, both from a film and script perspective. I just think with a little more work it would have been even better.

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