March 24th in Chicago, IL. My wife and I saw this trailer and got pretty excited for it. The film is directed by Steven Soderbergh, who surprisingly has only two directing credits since 2013. Soderbergh, always the auteur, shot the film with an iPhone 7 and he also edited the film. Almost like every shot is POV. The film was technically very well done.
The film stars Claire Foy as Sawyer Valentini, a young career woman who's trying to start her life over after problems with a stalker while she was living in Boston. Still feeling the effects, Sawyer seeks solace from a support group and lets it slip to a counselor that she thought about suicide. She gets referred to a facility but ends up getting unknowingly committed for 24 hours. Let this serve as a reminder, always read the fine print. Just don't sign your name on the dotted line.
Sawyer is not too happy with this arrangement, it leads her to strike an orderly that she sees as her stalker (it's not him) and to a fight with another patient, Violet (played by the underrated Juno Temple), That in turn ups the commitment to a week. Sawyer soon discovers that her stalker is indeed working at the facility and of course no one believes her. As Sawyer tries to figure a way out, she befriends another patient, Nate (played by Jay Pharoah), who turns out to be an undercover reporter. Nate is investigating insurance fraud at the facility and he gives his cell phone to Sawyer so she can call her mom (Amy Irving) for help.
While this is going on, the stalker (Joshua Leonard) is stepping up his efforts to discredit and get close to Sawyer. He drugs her to make her more violent. As it usually does with stalkers, he escalates, leading to some grisly behavior and a final showdown.
The film received a a 79% Rotten Tomatoes rating and I think that was a bit low. There are a few derivative scenes where it feels like you're watching Girl, Interrupted and there are some plot point that are a little predictable. But it's another wise solid story. As I mentioned earlier, I liked how Soderbergh shot and edited the film. Soderbergh kept things on edge as Sawyer slowly descends into madness. It turns out Sawyer was right all along and that's a shot at how our society has a tendency to disbelieve women and that men are somehow owed something from women (Sawyer and her stalker were co-workers, He saw something between that was not there). There's also the insurance fraud aspect. I find it very believable that a psychiatric facility can bilk payments from an insurance carrier. A patient gets "committed" and gets "cured" when the insurance runs out. Brilliant really. No one believes crazy people.
This is a solid film that is worth watching. It's a bit of a slow burn with the mounting tension but Soderbergh keeps a solid pace. Unsane had a short run in the theaters but keep an eye out for it on one of the big streaming sites.
No comments:
Post a Comment