FAQ

Madison Walker (Sarah Roemer), a young woman suffering from a personality disorder, has checked herself out of the hospital after trying to kill herself and boarded herself up in her apartment for 30 days as an experiment to see if she can figure out why she's so "messed up". She captures her entire odyssey on videotape and vows that, if she doesn't find some resolution, she will kill herself at the end of the venture. At the same time, the story follows three other suicidal girls, Margaret (Taryn Manning), Alexis (Imogen Poots), and Grace (Erin Kelly), all being treated in the same psychiatric hospital by the same psychiatrist, Dr Elizabeth Barnes (Elisabeth Shue), who was treating Madison.

Waking Madison is based on a screenplay written by American film-maker Katherine Brooks, who also directed the movie.

Madison's personality has split into several distinct personalities, a disorder commonly called "multiple personality disorder" (MPD), now known as dissociative identity disorder (DID) in the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). In DID, there may be two or more personalities in the same body, and it is common for one not to know about the other, resulting in "memory loss" when the unrevealed personality takes over. It is not known what causes the personality to split, but her other "selves" seem to have been created to help her make sense of and survive an insane and chaotic childhood. She was raised in a rural area of Louisiana by an abusive, religious zealot for a mother and a passive, sad alcoholic father who traveled with his work and wasn't there to protect her.

At the end of her 30 days, Madison begins replaying the videotapes. At the part where she vows to kill herself, the video goes dead. Somewhere in her office, Dr Barnes answers her ringing phone. A friendly voice says, "Madison is going to die tonight," then hangs up before identifying herself. Dr Barnes drives out to Madison's parents' house, looking for Madison. She first makes her way into a basement room where she retrieves Madison's notebook from under the mattress. She then rings the front doorbell and is greeted by Madison's father (Will Patton). After Madison's mother (Frances Conroy) rages about Dr Barnes not being a psychiatrist and having the "devil in her eyes," Dr Barnes and Mr Walker sit down at the dining room table to talk. Barnes asks where Madison is; Walker doesn't know but suggests that she stay there until Madison can be located. He shows her Madison's bedroom and assures her that he loves his daughter very much. When Barnes acknowledges how difficult it must have been for everyone including his daughter, Walker places his hands on her shoulders and says, "Sweetheart, you are my daughter." Dr Barnes turns to look in a mirror and sees Madison looking back at her. Walker takes his daughter into his arms and assures her that they want to help her. Suddenly, both Barnes and Madison are back in Madison's apartment. Barnes assures Madison that she cares about her and says goodbye. "You're going to be okay," she promises, and they hug. In the final scene, Madison is sitting on the St Charles trolley, number 315.

In particular, two movies that feature women with DID are compared to Waking Madison. Sybil (1976) (1975) features a young girl with 13 personalities. In The Three Faces of Eve (1957) (1957), "Eve" has three personalities. Although it doesn't have anything to do with DID, Nell (1994) (1992) tells the story of another backwoods North Carolina girl needing help integrating herself into normal society.