Review of The Best Little Girl in the World

I'm not saying older films are bad, I love them. I love My Bloody Valentine, which also came out in 1981, but there's a difference between a fictional horror film and a film where real issues and treatments are discussed. Methods to treat mental illnesses and/or addictions are far different today than they were ten, twenty, thirty years ago. This film also has the feeling of an incredibly typical Lifetime movie, and it follows a pattern: a girl has anorexia, she's committed to a treatment center that saves the day, and voilà, easy as that. I read the book, which is also rather outdated. The Best Little Girl in the World is more of a film to watch if you're interested in the differences between psychiatric treatment today and in past years, or to watch just for nostalgic value. They were originally going to cast Jodie Foster and I honestly think she would have done a much better acting job than Jennifer Jason Leigh. The film itself is pretty boring and the acting throughout is typical TV movie acting. Really the only example of a film about mental illness/addiction that is timeless is Go Ask Alice (1973). I don't really recommend this unless you want to pass the time.