Mental (2012) on Netflix
Five sisters in a coastal suburb are sure they are mentally ill, and their mother has been committed. Their father, politician Barry, installs a hitchhiker named Shaz as their nanny.
- Netflix3.5/5
- IMDb6.1/105,316 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes44%
Trailer
Plot summary
Shirley Moochmore lives in Dolphin Heads, an Australian coastal suburb, with her five daughters, who are convinced they have undiagnosed mental illnesses. Her husband Barry, a local politician, is often away, and Shirley loses herself in the songs of her favorite musical. After ordering an enormous amount of furniture in a manic spell and telling the neighbors her husband won it on a television game show, she is committed to a mental institution, and Barry has the girls say their mother is on holiday in Wollongong. Left alone with daughters he barely knows, he takes in Shaz, a surly hitchhiker, as their nanny. Shaz arrives with her dog Ripper and a knife in her cowboy boot.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Mental (2012)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Writer-director P. J. Hogan based the script on his own mother's mental breakdown when he was 12, and on his politician father's refusal to tell anyone about his wife's illness in case it hurt his electoral chances.
- While shooting Muriel's Wedding, Hogan and his producer wife Jocelyn Moorhouse entertained Toni Collette with stories about the real 'Shaz', and Collette declared that if a film was made about the woman, she was playing her.
- Hogan recalled coming home from school to find a strange woman rolling a cigarette with a knife in her boot and a dog beside her, who took care of the family for six to eight months, even after his mother returned home.
- Hogan's sister also has schizophrenia and told him he should put her in a movie because she wanted people to know what it was like.
