“Infinitely Polar Bear” is a dark comedy taking place in Boston in the 1970’s that stars Mark Ruffalo as Cam and Zoe Saldana as Maggie. The autobiographical film is based on writer/director Maya Forbes’ childhood. It is an interesting story about a bipolar man with two girls named Amelia (the director’s actual 12-year-old daughter) and Faith, who is separated from his wife, Maggie.
One day when his wife, who has physical custody of the kids, decides to go to Columbia Graduate School in New York to better the children’s living situation, he finds himself taking care of the girls full-time. As one might expect this is not an easy transition for Cam, who is not used to all this responsibility. The high-energy girls do not make it easy on him, though. There is little quiet time for this family, as Cam himself is in full on manic mode for much of the movie. The girls are ashamed by their financial situation and wish that the family’s beat-up car could be replaced. One thing Maggie tries to do to help is enroll the girls at a nice school, even though she has to lie about the family’s residence to achieve this.
Cam has a childlike quality to him and a desire to please people, the latter of which sometimes comes across the wrong way. When his girls say to him that they want to meet up with some friends in the park, he asks if he can come, not so that he can supervise them, but so that he can play with their friends. In addition, when Cam and the girls offer to help a new neighbor with her groceries by bringing them from her car to her apartment, Cam asks if he can not only put the groceries away in the apartment (which the neighbor declines), but also if he can rearrange some of her furniture to give it a different kind of look. His behavior of course embarrasses his two daughters.
The film bears a resemblance to “Kramer vs Kramer” (1979), another family melodrama where a father finds himself in charge of his child when the mother leaves. In each case, the father has to take on traditionally maternal roles and finds the adjustment (at least initially) to be a difficult and challenging one.
The actresses playing the girls give excellent performances that feel quite natural. Ruffalo gives a daring performance, where he really has to put himself out there. Saldana in a supporting role gives a tender, moving performance.
I did find some shortcomings in the picture. It did not make sense to me why Maggie would leave the girls in Cam’s care while she got her MBA, knowing his history. A scene at an office in which Cam is trying to get Maggie a job at a really upscale company was too over-the-top in how it transpired. Also, I wished Zoe Saldana’s character had more screen time. Mark Ruffalo’s character just about always having a cigarette in his mouth came to be a little much. Even though we come to see that his character smokes a lot, having him do this seemed on the distracting side.
The movie does a good job addressing parental involvement and responsibility. While not always easy to watch, the movie feels authentic. Thankfully, we do not get a contrived happy ending. While there is some optimism, it feels true to life.
