, 1h40 OriginUSA GenresDrama ActorsDiana Ross, Beah Richards, Carl Lumbly, John Marshall Jones, Stack Pierce, Juanita Jennings Roles Dr. Whitman Rating74% In the film, Ross played the character of Paulie Cooper, a former med student who becomes ill with paranoid schizophrenia and loses 18 years of her life due to the sickness. After her release from a mental ward Paulie struggles to rebuild her life with help from doctors, nurses and a new experimental-medicine drug that would help aid her back to health. Throughout the movie, Paulie seeks to better herself in a world that she felt had shunned her.