I went into Rosemead not knowing that the movie was based on a true story. All I really knew was that it was a movie starring Lucy Liu playing a mother who has a troubled son. Knowing what I know now makes the story all the more heartbreaking.
The main plot of the movie is that a terminally sick mother finds out her son has violent tendencies and she feels that she needs to protect him, and others, from him. It’s an intense look at both physical and mental sicknesses. His father died from cancer, now his mother has cancer, and he suffers from schizophrenia. That’s a lot for any one family to go through.
Lucy Liu gives the performance of a lifetime in this movie. She makes you feel everything her character is feeling. It was by no means an easy movie to watch. It just so happens that absolutely soul-crushing movies tend to be right up my alley.
The reason this one hit so hard for me, though, is because of how mental illness is handled. My grandmother on my dad’s side eventually started to think things like that she had a chip implanted in her brain. From what I could tell, either no one ever tried to get her help or she refused it. My parents took care of her for a while after my grandfather passed and she was always stubborn, so either one is plausible.
I remember when I first decided to try therapy. It took me a while to even tell my mom about it and I’m pretty sure to this day my dad still doesn’t know. The reason? It’s not a thing either of them seem to understand the point of. There are a lot of families out there like that and Rosemead portrays the most extreme example of that.
Lucy Liu’s character Irene takes what seems to be months of convincing to even walk into the Family Center with her son despite the doctor’s numerous attempts to get her to attend a session. She can see that something is happening with her son and by the time she realizes how bad it is, she feels like it’s too late for him to be helped.
One thing I did learn with therapy is that in order for it to work, you have to be willing to let it. Joe’s efforts feel like he’s not fully embracing the process. He tries to play things off as something they’re not, even when his friends are concerned about him. His behavior gets more and more destructive and concerning, but Irene also waves it off as a family matter that can easily be dealt with. It was painful to watch both characters push away any sort of help. Especially when there are so options. We see so much senseless death day after day.
Spoilers for the end of the movie ahead.
The movie’s final scene is some of Liu’s best work in her career. After receiving her terminal diagnosis and realizing her son has a fascination with school shooters (and a hand-drawn map of his school to boot), she goes through the proper channels to obtain a gun. It’s a months-long process, which gives her plenty of time to reconsider what she’s doing (she seemingly never does).
Joe’s 18th birthday is coming up, so she feels like she’s running out of time in the sense that she’ll no longer have control over his life. Not to mention at this point she herself only has months to live. She books them into the same motel where they spent a night as a family back when his father was still alive. It’s a place where they have good memories. She wants him to feel a sense of calm and gifts him a new pair of shoes he’d been wanting. Once he’s asleep, she shoots him to make sure he won’t end up being another mass shooter.
It’s heartbreaking and terrifying all at once. While one can understand why she thought she had to do it, it’s hard to swallow that she thought killing her son was a better alternative to getting him help. Even if he was about to turn 18, she could have easily had a doctor evaluate him and he likely would’ve been determined unfit and assigned a conservator.
Again, nothing this extreme has happened in my family, but it was still a reaction to mental health that I understood. My dad won’t even get health insurance and go see a doctor for his plethora of health issues. He sure as hell would never go to a therapist.
It’s hard to ask for help. It really is. It’s hard to let someone else in so that they can help you. None of it is easy, but it is better than this alternative.
Here’s the original story from the Los Angeles Times that the movie was based on.
If you ever are in a crisis, there are people who can help. 988 is the hotline number that is available 24/7 through a phone call or text.