To the Bone (film)

Ellen is a 20-year-old college dropout dealing with anorexia, who returns home to the house of her stepmother and father after struggling through an in-patient program and failing to make any progress. With her absentee father unwilling to deal with her, Ellen's stepmother, Susan, sets her up with a specialist, Dr. William Beckham, who insists that Ellen join his patient program. Ellen is reluctant to do so, but her mind is changed by her younger sister.

Ellen moves into the house with six other patients, who include five young women and Luke, an upbeat ballet dancer, who is near recovery from both his anorexia and a knee injury. Luke acts as a moral cheerleader for the other patients and takes a special interest in Ellen, eventually revealing that he is a fan of Ellen's art.

At a family-therapy session with Beckham, Ellen's father fails to show up. Until 18 months earlier, Ellen was living with her mother, who abandoned her to move to Phoenix, Arizona, with a lesbian partner. It is revealed that previous artwork she had posted on Tumblr was cited as an influence by a girl who later killed herself. Ellen promises to try to do better, but instead continues to lose weight.

Ellen makes headway, changing her name to Eli and bonding with the other members of the house. She is surprised, however, when Luke kisses her and admits he is starting to fall in love with her. She panics and quickly rejects him. Later on, she learns that Megan, another woman in the house, who was pregnant, miscarried her baby, having resumed her purging after reaching the 12-week mark and believing it was safe. The event sends Eli into a tailspin, and she decides to run away. On her way out, Luke begs her to stay, telling her that he needs her, as he realizes that his knee condition is permanent and he will never be able to properly dance again and needs something new on which to focus. Eli leaves anyway.

Near death, Eli goes to her mother's home. That night, her mother expresses guilt for the postpartum depression she had after giving birth to Ellen and suggests that she might try feeding Eli with a bottle while rocking her to help solve both their issues. Eli finds the idea strange, but after her mother tells her that she accepts if she chooses death, she decides to go along with the idea and allows herself to be rocked while her mother feeds her rice milk from a bottle.

After eating, Eli goes for a walk at night. Passing out, she hallucinates that she is in a tree where she kisses Luke, who is able to get her to see how sick she is. He gives her a piece of coal that represents her courage, and she swallows it.

Waking up from her dream, Eli decides to return home. She embraces her stepmother and her sister before continuing on in Beckham's patient program.

• Lily Collins as Ellen (Eli), 20-year-old patient with anorexia
• Keanu Reeves as Dr. William Beckham
• Carrie Preston as Susan, Ellen's stepmother
• Lili Taylor as Judy, Ellen's mother
• Alex Sharp as Luke, 19-year-old patient with anorexia/ binge eating disorder
• Liana Liberato as Kelly, Ellen's 18-year-old half sister
• Brooke Smith as Olive, Judy's wife
• Leslie Bibb as Megan, a patient with anorexia and bulimia
• Kathryn Prescott as Anna, a patient with bulimia
• Ciara Bravo as Tracy, a patient with bulimia
• Maya Eshet as Pearl, a patient with anorexia
• Lindsay McDowell as Kendra, a patient with binge-eating disorder
• Retta as Lobo, the in-patient nurse
• Alanna Ubach as Karen, the therapist

In March 2016, Lily Collins was announced to have been cast in a leading role in an anorexia drama film titled To the Bone, written and directed by Marti Noxon, based on Noxon's early battle with the eating disorder. The film marks Noxon's feature directorial debut[2] Later that month, Keanu Reeves joined the cast, portraying the role of a doctor.[3] On March 29, Carrie Preston was cast as Collins' character's stepmother.[4] AMBI Group was later reported to be co-producing and financing the picture.[5] In early April, Lili Taylor, Alex Sharp, Brooke Smith, and Liana Liberato were reported as joining the cast of the film in unknown roles.[6] On April 11, Ciara Bravo was cast in the supporting role of Tracy, a young girl also suffering from an eating disorder.[7]

Principal photography began in late March 2016 in Los Angeles.[2]

The film held its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 2017. It was featured as a contender in the U.S. Dramatic Competition.[1] In 2017, Netflix acquired distribution rights to the film and was released worldwide on July 14, 2017.[8][9]

• To the Bone at IMDb
• To the Bone at Rotten Tomatoes