Movie Analysis

I. Synopsis

A young girl's dangerous dance with dieting leads to near disaster death. In one of the
earliest treatments of the subject, Jennifer Jason Leigh stars as Casey Powell, the quiet
daughter of an overbearing mother and milquetoast father. Feeling pressure to be the good
girl of the family after her troublesome older sister gets pregnant, Casey retreats into her
secretive world of self-starvation. When arguing fails to produce results, her parents
(Charles Durning and Eva Marie Saint) send her to a hospital where she meets a spunky
fellow patient (Melanie Mayron) and a caring therapist (Jason Miller). Casey's road to
recovery is not as simple as merely eating though, and she and her family realize that
together they must confront the deeply-rooted familial issues that lay at the heart of
Casey's affliction.

II. Plot

A teenager named Casey Powell is a shy and insecure, which has friends, are caught up
with dieting to become better in ballerina. She has a friend who shared her a magazine
showing slim and sexy girls. She as a quiet daughter of an overbearing mother and
milquetoast father lacks of attention on her parents after her 19-year-old sister Gail got
pregnant by somebody she has no interest in marrying. Frank is infuriated and Joanne is
worried about Gail, so they forget to spend time with Casey. They think of her as the good
girl who doesn't cause any trouble. Feeling ignored, Casey starts wanting to look like the
girls on the covers of magazines and begins working out and dieting as well.

Casey loves dancing that is why her friends convince her to join in a ballet lesson, she
urgently agreed on them. Casey is noticed by the teacher, Madame Seurat, who tells her
she, could be very good if she loses a few pounds, this event also pressured her. Though. It
doesn't take long before Casey becomes a starving anorexic who occasionally purges. She is
surprised when her parents don't take her desire of professional dancing seriously, but
doesn't give up her dream. Over the next two months, Casey becomes obsessed with
dieting and improving in ballet. This affects her studies to deteriorate, which brings
attention from her parents.

On other hand, her sister really sees how thin Casey is, she warns her parents. Her
family sent Casey to a doctor who orders her to start eating normally again, threatening to
send her to a hospital if she doesn't. Despite the pressure, Casey is afraid to gain weight and
continues her eating disorder secretly. When her parents discover diet pills, Frank tries to
force her to eat, but she refuses to do so. When she returns home from a party she tries to
convince her parents that she ate at the party, but Frank isn't convinced and tries to shove a
peanut butter sandwich in her mouth, but she bites his hand. After her parents take the pills
from her, Casey became desperate that she even steal a package of pills at the pharmacy
the next day. However, she is caught by the policemen and got arrested. After her parents
bail her out, she collapses outside the police station and is taken to the hospital. She tries to
run away, but she collapses yet again outside the hospital and is taken back.
 In the hospital, she met her fellow patient Carol Link who became her friend. Carol is
also suffering from anorexia and bulimia and gives Casey advice about how to get kicked out
of the hospital and also teaches her tricks to mislead the doctors. At one moment, Carol
overdoses on pills and Casey witnesses her dying. Crushed and devastated, she runs away,
but collapses for the third time. When she becomes conscious again, she is angry that she is
back in the hospital. She tells her doctor, Clay Orlovsky, that she is afraid to die as well, but
he assures her that is not going to happen.

When Casey improves and realizes all the bad things she had done, her doctor finally
allowed her to see her family again. Dr. Orlovsky analyzes their meeting and even conducts
a therapy session that he tells the family that he thinks Casey has developed an eating
disorder because it seems to be the only way for her to get attention. After a while, Casey
finally recovers and is released from the hospital. She doesn't want to leave, however, and
feels safer with Dr. Orlovsky. In the final scene, she eats ice cream without disliking it and
being afraid to get fat. Her family understands her now more and they became even more
responsible too their child.

III. Setting

The Best Little Girl in the World takes place in the year of 1979. The first one is the
Dietrich’s home. Their apartment is located in New York City. The second location is at
Francesca’s dancing studio downtown. The third location where the action takes place is in
the hospital. Casey is in the hospital for about three months, and then she is released to live
at home.

IV. Character Analysis

 Charles Durning as Frank  Lenora May as Julie  Pat Corley as Store

Powell  Laurence Lau as Mark Manager[2]
 Eva Marie Saint as Joanne  Michael Dudikoff as Chuck  Enid Kent as First Nurse
Powell  Stephanie Cannon as  Gwen Van Dam as Nurse
 Jennifer Jason Leigh as Mary  Ruth Silveira as Second
Casey Powell  Ally Sheedy as First Girl Nurse[2]
 Melanie Mayron as Carol  Andrea Pope as Michelle  Marilyn Coleman as
Link  Richard Milholland as Dr. Emergency Nurse
 Lisa Pelikan as Gail Powell Norman  Paul Laurence as
 Viveca Lindfors as  Jonathan Estrin as Dr. Respiratory Therapist
Madame Seurat Shuster  Helen Hunt as a friend of
 David Spielberg as Dr.  Lang Yun as Nurse Prine] Casey
Garett  Jessica Lange
 Jason Miller as Clay
Orlovsky
 Richard Venture as Dr.
Neil Holzer
 Casey Powell- is a young teenage girl who is secretly suffering from anorexia nervosa, a mental
and physical illness of deliberately starving herself or self-induced vomiting, because of her
troubled home life and problems at school in which her bickering parents must put aside their
differences to help her recover before her condition kills her. She is a teenager who has a low
self-esteem it may be rooted from her status at home wherein her parents are always arguing
and complaining.

 Frank Powell- a milquetoast father who is a restrictive and punitive in which he exhorts
the adolescents to follow directions and to respect work and effort. He who has a slight
drinking problem. He always yells and is ill-tempered. He is firm limits and controls of his
daughter and allows little verbal exchange. It is associated with Casey’s socially
incompetent behavior. This type of parenting that Frank is under is associated often are
anxious about social comparison fail to initiate activity, and have poor communication
skills.

 Joanne Powell- an overbearing and loving mother of Casey who gets hurt more when
she sees her daughter is in wrong path. She is very supportive to her family and the one
who neutralize the atmosphere when her husband and her daughter got into
arguments.

 Gail Powell- a 19 years old sister of Casey who got impregnated by someone who does
not love her due to this she got her parent’s attention while Casey was left behind of her
parent’s support and attention.
 Carol Link- fellow patient of Casey at the hospital and who became her friend. She is also
suffering from anorexia and bulimia and gives Casey advice about how to get kicked out of the
hospital and also teaches her tricks to mislead the doctors. At one moment, Carol overdoses on
pills and Casey witnesses her dying. Unlike Casey, Carol’s case of being anorexic and bulimic is
more severe, her self-esteem is lower than Casey that she is more desperate to be thin that she
overdoses herself just to make believe herself that she is not fat and maintain her thin body.

IV. Reaction

This movie gained attention especially it was nearly aired when performer Karen
Carpenter died of complications from anorexia nervosa. Though the movie received
criticism for its portrayal of treatment for anorexia victims, which was thought to be
unrealistic. Another criticism was that its plot differed too much from the novel.

For me this movie is somehow true if I will relate this to my experiences as an

adolescent, like her I used to experienced being so conscious about how my body
looks like just to look good in the eyes of other. One factor for this is family problem,
like in the movie, Casey got no attention from her parents that she thinks that way
to lose so much weight in order to catch their attention.

The all-important purposes of this book are to inform and to narrate. The author
does a nice job of achieving his purpose. I am now aware of the many dangers of the
 deadly disease being described. Steven Levenkron has many qualifications.

This book does have a few weaknesses but more strength. A weakness would have
to be the ending. It is not eventful. I was hoping for a surprise of some sort, and it
never came. However, I noted much strength. The descriptive details seem great.
Although the details appear rather gross at points, I think that is a good thing. That
way a reader discovers the harsh reality of the disease. “The thinner is the winner”.
This is a powerful quote because thinness is what the whole story is based upon.
Casey thinks that the thinner she is the better. She is most definitely proved wrong
in the end. This movie shows a lot of different conflicts like Casey fighting herself as
manifested by battling over her own weight wherein she will endure not to eat and
over exercised her just lose weight.

Also, it reminds us all how the media is effective in changing our minds like what
happened to Casey who always looks on the magazine to idolized it and imitate it..
This means that the author can crawl into the character’s minds. I enjoy this movie
because the scriptwriter and the director is able to know what all of the characters
are thinking. I enjoyed this, so I would definitely recommend it to others. It shows
the harsh reality of anorexia nervosa. After watching this movie, an individual will
realize that this is a serious matter, which should not be taken lightly.

V. Moral Lesson:

For me the moral lesson of this is regret is always at the end. Though this only enlightens us
that from our mistakes we can learn lesson from it and from that lesson we should be able to
not do that again that mistakes. As an adolescent it is very natural for us to be confused and be
encouraged by what the trends take us in. We wanted to be in so even if that cause us some bad
we do not care as long as our peers and the society will accept us. Hence, in this stage the
guidance and attention of our parents is very important. As them our parents this movie will
enlightens them how important is them for us because we used to look at them, our parents
and us as their children are partners.