We meet first Olivia (played by screenwriter Marietere Vélez) on Christmas Eve, picking up the last minute essentials for a family holiday party: essentials like Doritos, rum, and toothpaste (more on that later). It’s the most joyous time of the year, and nothing could be better, until a man that Olivia bumps into grabs her arm– and her world shifts on its axis. Vélez is downright enthralling throughout all of RECETA NO INCLUIDA (WITHOUT PRESCRIPTION) (directed by Juliana Maite), and even in these initial moments, without the context of why Olivia is reacting in this way, the viewer understands her and is rooting for her regardless. Arriving at the party, Olivia has to field indiscreet digs from her mother in regards to her job, love life, and living situation, as well as an ultimatum from her ex boyfriend, saying he can be in her life again if she “gets better.”
It becomes apparent that the physical contact from a strange man in the grocery store has triggered Olivia’s OCD, which manifests as a voice in her head repeatedly telling her to spit. As her external stressors build in intensity, so does this voice. She follows the voice’s instructions to brush her teeth, but that is not enough as the voice proceeds to tell her to find something sharp, pull out a tooth, or else she will die. WITHOUT PRESCRIPTION thrusts us into the interior of Olivia’s mental illness, punctuating her anxiety with the sound of toothbrushing, the voice in her head layering and talking over itself in echoing loops, so the viewer can truly understand her desire to make it all stop.
Through a passive aggressive conversation with her mother, the audience learns that Olivia’s job as a teacher does not afford her health insurance, meaning she does not have an affordable way to obtain the medication that will help to manage her current symptoms. Her family seems largely unaware of her immediate suffering, and she slips away to meet David (Gabriel Leyva), a man who works at the local pharmacy and sniffs out her desperation in seconds. WITHOUT PRESCRIPTION then takes the audience to our primary location for the film, David’s home.
David is initially a very withholding man, asking Olivia many invasive questions about her diagnosis, need for the medication, and history with mental illness. This is only further complicated by the arrival of Jessica (Mariana Monclova), someone from Olivia’s past who knows too much. The anxiety is palpable, not easing up even when Jessica’s leaves as before Olivia can follow suit, a torrential rain comes down, trapping her in David’s home until it passes. This is where WITHOUT PRESCRIPTION transforms into an incredibly effective character study as Olivia and David (and their opposing personalities) are forced to share space with each other during a vulnerable moment in both of their lives, ultimately challenging the things that they believe about themselves.
A majority of WITHOUT PRESCRIPTION’s slim runtime is dedicated to these two characters sitting and talking, and Vélez and Leyva handle this beautifully with their performances. Through their conversations and musings, the film pieces together and begins to resemble a tapestry of their shared anxieties and concerns, even if they present themselves in differing ways. After their own fashion, Olivia and David are both afraid to let people in or ask anyone for help. We see Olivia hiding the severity of her OCD from her family, and the lengths she is willing to go to to get medication without anyone finding out. Then there is David, unwilling to share anything more personal than his homebrew craft beer set up. Even as he is in the midst of an extreme panic attack, he is allergic to any kind of comfort or affection from Olivia. We get the sense that under normal circumstances, he would send Olivia away and ensure he had complete isolation in a moment like this, but thanks to the storm keeping her here, he is forced to crack open and let another person in. It’s messy and freeing and a demonstration that a burden shared is more manageable than a burden you desperately try to keep to yourself.
Trust is a tricky thing to come by. It is scary to trust someone and can be hard to believe that someone is acting purely in your best interests. That’s what makes it so heartwarming in cases like WITHOUT PRESCRIPTION where that unconditional trust is shared between what are essentially strangers. Should it be harder to trust a stranger than someone you have known for years? WITHOUT PRESCRIPTION argues that the line between stranger and loved one may be more blurred than we think, as you can really only know the aspects of someone that they are willing to share. Nobody is just one thing, and being given the opportunity to see all sides of someone, even the sides they would much rather hide, is a rare and beautiful thing.
In addition, WITHOUT PRESCRIPTION also serves as a really thoughtful portrayal of mental illness as something so many people live with. A vast majority of the time, it is not something that is ever “cured.” As far as Olivia’s family knows, her OCD is gone and she has gotten over it. That’s not really how it works though, is it? WITHOUT PRESCRIPTION demonstrates the way that it will always be a factor in her life, it will always come back, but she can learn to manage it and live with it. And perhaps one of the most important lessons that she will learn is that no matter how heavy the weight, it is always safer to lift with another person spotting you.
WITHOUT PRESCRIPTION is a very sweet, contained, and above all comforting movie. An excellent way to treat yourself to some self love for 80 minutes. Once you get past the heart pounding anxiety in the first half. It’s the kind of film that reminds the viewer that you aren’t alone, and in times like these, that’s an important message, all too easy to forget.
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