Cady's Take:

Christina Ricci stars in and serves as producer for the screen adaptation of the book Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America . Based on Elizabeth Wurtzel's memoir, Prozac Nation chronicles her first year at Harvard University .

What Lizzie finds at Harvard is an endless cycle of cigarettes, booze, drugs, parties, and sex. Burdened with a crushing case of depression, Lizzie destroys relationships everywhere she goes, including that of her mother (Jessica Lange), roommate (Michelle Williams), doctor (Anna Heche), and boyfriends (Jason Biggs and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers).

Plain and simple, Lizzie is an unlikable person and there's no way that the audience is going to get behind her or care about what happens to her. It's extremely difficult to watch a character who has no redeeming qualities. She is infuriating, completely irritating and simply unpleasant, as is the movie.

Prozac Nation gives absolutely no insight into Wurtzel's condition. All the film did was make me realize that she was someone whom I would never want to know in real life. This should never have been made into a feature film.

Most disturbing is that the film actually endorses Prozac at the end, which is, well, a complete betray considering that the title promises to expose Prozac as a problem.

Considering the amount of dislike Cady expressed for "Prozac Nation" I thought for sure we would both end up hating this movie. On the contrary, while I did not love it, the movie accurately depicted a young woman already suffering from depression who is thrown into her freshman year of college where access to drugs and alcohol and no supervision serve only to exacerbate the problem. I would not say that Christina Ricci's Lizzie is a likeable character - no, she is drowning in depression which makes her behavior and personality appear very unlikeable indeed. On the other hand, I saw something of myself in this character; her inability to cope with new problems and pressures, away at college and alone, and unable to form herself due to pressures from both within and without.

"Prozac Nation" is not a feel-good movie. It is a true story, a story about depression and treatment, families and friends, and ultimately how we choose to define ourselves. I disagree that this movie endorses Prozac. The ending simply gives facts about the number of people in America who are on Prozac. Lizzie first desires to be medicated - after all, isn't it just as good as booze or pot? But then after therapy does not work, she rails against the prescription until a pivotal moment in a bathroom makes her realize that sometimes you just can't work out the problems in your head by yourself.

In spite of my enduring dislike of everything Christina Ricci, I have to grudgingly admit that she reflected back to me some of my biggest fears and most intensely private moments. That discomfort made me anxious, but I think that is because I recognized there was Truth present. And sometimes a movie should provide some Truth.