Have you ever had someone tell you, “I can’t make you better?”  It hurts to hear such words, particularly since they are said most often when we are at our lowest.  In such moments, we want someone to tell us that this is not the end.  Things will get better.  However, as that opening line suggests, there is not a person on Earth that can do that for us.  Faith will tell you that we cannot do it on our own, either.  That sounds like a conundrum, but it simply means that only God can heal us.  What it takes on our part is belief in Him.  Unfortunately, The Road Within (2014) does not present itself in a Christian manner.  It does point the way to what we can do for others, albeit in an unorthodox fashion.  I did not care for many aspects of the content, but it is a good story that I am happy to discuss.

While I am happy to talk about The Road Within, it starts on a sad day for Vincent (Robert Sheehan).  We meet him at the funeral for his mother, but that is not the only problem.  Instead of being able to mourn as anyone else might, his Tourette syndrome has him constantly ticking and shouting obscenities in uncontrollable spasms.  His politician father, Robert (Robert Patrick), looks askance at his son, more worried his public image than Vincent’s condition.  Roert does not have to worry for long since after the service he plans to take Vincent to a special clinic to treat the young man.  Vincent is not thrilled by the idea, but is powerless to stop the process.  Upon arriving at the treatment center, father and son meet with the lead therapist, Dr. Mia Rose (Kyra Sedgwick). One of Dr. Rose’s first moves is to ask Robert to leave the room so she can speak privately with Vincent.  Once they are alone, she asks what he wants out of his time there, and he says something vague about wanting to get better.  From there, he is brought to meet his roommate, Alex (Dev Patel).  Alex has an extreme obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), wanting everything to be clean and in its place, fearing germs of all kinds, and definitely not wanting to be in close quarters with anyone.  Thus, it is not surprising when he reacts poorly to Vincent, but Dr. Rose refers to it as a “behavioral exercise.”  Alex is not the only person to which Vincent is introduced.  Vincent also encounters Marie (Zöe Kravitz), who is there due to her struggles with anorexia.  She gives him a fuller tour of the grounds, but it is evident that she, like him, is not thrilled about being confined in this location.  There is also a connection between the two, which builds despite his inability to control himself around her.  This also comes out in negative ways, such as when he jumps a fence and starts beating up a boy at a neighboring school who is making fun of them while filming them.  Following the incident, Marie and Vincent are taken to see Dr. Rose, and during it Marie steals the keys to Dr. Rose’s car.  That night, she wakes Vincent, proposing that they take off together.  Before they can get far, Alex confronts them in the parking lot, threatening to report the matter to Dr. Rose.  Instead, Marie and Vincent force Alex into the car, and now you have three escaped patients.  Because of Vincent’s twitching, he is unable to drive, but he does give them a direction.  Based on a photograph of his mom and dad, he wants to travel to the ocean where it was taken, intending to spread her ashes at the same spot.  After finally calming down, they even get Alex to agree to the plan for the moment.  Nonetheless, because the matter is soon reported to Robert, he stops payment on Vincent’s credit card, meaning they have no means of funding the trip.  Indeed, it takes some convincing by Dr. Rose to get Robert to interrupt his campaign to help her search for the missing patients.  It seems foolish to Robert to wander about aimlessly, but the rain gives a clue to Dr. Rose as to where the others might be given what is known of Alex, Marie, and Vincent’s activities to this point.  Dr. Rose and Robert finally catch up to the others at a lake where they have stopped, and it looks like their quest is over.  However, Alex throws Dr. Rose’s keys into the lake while Marie distracts Robert, and Vincent commandeers his dad’s car.  From there, it is back on the road and heading towards the Pacific.  Along the way, our three escapees learn to bond more with one another, although it is tested when the romance between Marie and Vincent turns physical.  Out of jealousy, Alex tells Vincent that Marie is incapable of love, and that she is just using them.  When that does not seem to have an effect, Alex maroons his companions in the mountains.  Meanwhile, Dr. Rose has gotten Robert to see his son differently, which leads to him figuring out where they are going.  However, when they arrive at the place, there is no sign of Vincent or his two travel buddies.  Instead, Marie and Vincent have found Alex, and they all air their grievances with one another, which turns violent.  It is apparently cathartic, though, and they continue on to the coast.  Once there, Alex and Vincent triumphantly run towards the water.  Marie tries to keep pace, but her heart gives out and she collapses.  This gives Dr. Rose and Robert the location of their lost loved ones.  For Marie, it means the end of running from her problems, and Vincent says goodbye while telling her to find him when she is able.  It also leads to a discussion between Robert and Vincent, which basically amounts to an apology by Robert.  With that, Alex and Vincent are allowed to continue their adventure with a new lease on life.

It is not simply a cliché statement to end a synopsis of The Road Within by saying that Alex and Vincent have a “new lease on life.”  It is also not accurate to say they are “better,” at least clinically speaking.  They are better spiritually, but Alex is still wearing latex gloves to protect against germs and Vincent continues to tic in the final shot.  What the movie is about is learning to live with these conditions.  Our society is so focused on “fixing” such situations.  The Church teaches that everyone is loved by God no matter who they are, and are thus worthy of dignity.  That Alex and Vincent come to such a conclusion means that they have, in essence, been reborn.  As stated in the introduction, the film does not cast this transformation in a Christian light, despite it opening with what looks at least Catholic adjacent in terms of the funeral service.  As an aside, yet again I have to wonder why movies cannot get basic things about the Faith correct.  Getting back to our three protagonists, it is Alex who has the most interesting insight into what is going on with his issues.  He comes to the realization that his condition has been making his world smaller.  In journeying with people like him, seeing the things that they saw like God’s wide creation, and generally being exposed to that larger world, he and Vincent come to another conclusion: they are broken.  Such can describe anyone of us because we are all broken.  Sometimes, the solution is to retreat into the walls of a facility and work on those issues.  A Catholic without such problems can go on retreat, for example.  A lot of times, though, it takes others modeling Christ for us to experience the kind of healing that only God can provide.  Again, they are not “fixed,” and this will never be accomplished this side of the grave.  What we can do is accept and know our worth.

That The Road Within concludes on such a note of human worth despite any issues we might develop makes it a recommendation for me.  There is some nudity in it, and a lot of swearing, the latter of which is a symptom of Vincent’s condition.  At the same time, I appreciate the growth the characters undergo.