The feature debut of documentarian Cary Bell is a poignant profile-in-courage portrait of a young adult (and her family) grappling with a cruel genetic disorder. It may remind viewers of the fiction of Jodi Picoult, with a strong Texas flavor.
The vérité camera profiles Abigail Evans, a Lone Star state teenager who has suffered since birth from dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (DEB), a life-threatening syndrome making skin exquisitely tender and prone to blisters, infections, and scarring at any touch. Physically striking, the girl looks like the proverbial Yellow Rose; only up close can one discern her hands especially have lost fingernails, lesions cover her knees, and she takes in nutrients and medicine via a shunt in her abdomen (even her esophageal lining is affected).
The expressive Abby bears these hardships with the loving aid of her parents, John and Stacie, who no longer live together but cooperate to maintain their daughter's strict healthcare regimen. John is a musician, and Abby accompanies him to Austin for his honky-tonk gigs as a sort of one-girl street team, roadie, and assistant—so she isn't absolutely cloistered. But Abby wants even greater independence, and the test comes when she determines to attend college in faraway California.
While impending, grueling hand surgery is a key narrative point, in-depth medical details surrounding DEB are secondary to the film—which in its way is a soulmate to the classic John Travolta hospital tearjerker The Boy in the Plastic Bubble. How, the audience wonders, can a vibrant young person live her best life with a condition that literally renders her untouchable? Viewers may or may not consider it an omission that physical intimacy, among other facets, is never addressed, but there will not likely be a dry eye at the fadeout.
What public library shelves would this title be on?
Institutions dealing with healthcare and (especially) patients persevering through chronic and congenital maladies—including the one depicted—should carry the item. Texas-region libraries are also a special interest.
What academic subjects would this film be suitable for?
Medical-oriented film collections in schools, universities, and public libraries should include the title, though family/human relations may also invest.
What type of classroom would this documentary resource be suitable for?
Classrooms at the high-school level should be aware of a frustrated and pained Abby's occasional use of the f-word, but the documentary otherwise strongly addresses a young adult and above audience. Recommended for teenage and adult students.