Review: Asylum (**)

ASYLUM
A film review by Steve Rhodes

Copyright 2005 Steve Rhodes



RATING (0 TO ****): **



A completely unbelievable melodrama and bodice ripper, ASYLUM has a single
saving grace. The good acting by its fine cast just barely prevents it from
being laughably ridiculous and completely unwatchable. Based on a novel by
Patrick McGrath, the film is directed by David Mackenzie, who last brought
us the equally awful YOUNG ADAM.



Natasha Richardson plays Stella Raphael, the bored wife of Max (Hugh
Bonneville), an up-and-coming doctor at an institute for the criminally
insane in England. Apparently a pretty progressive place for mental
hospitals in the 1950s, the hospital allows its better patients to work with
minimal supervision on the doctor's residences and even, at the annual
holiday ball, to dance with other patients and with the doctors and their
wives.



After one dance with Edgar (Marton Csokas), an inmate who hacked his wife to
death for "betraying" him, Stella is ready to throw caution to the wind.
Although she has a young son named Charlie (Gus Lewis) who dotes on her, she
risks everything one day and has sex with Edgar just outside of a guard's
view. The film is in such a rush to get to the sex that it never takes the
time to convince us of Stella's instant obsession. She keeps up this risky
behavior, but perhaps it's not quite so dangerous since Peter Cleave (Ian
McKellen), Edgar's doctor, reassures her that Edgar is a "perfectly safe
mental patient." Right.



After we suffer through 97 tedious minutes of quickies and cheap melodrama,
the only question we have is whether the ending twist, which has to be
there, will be sufficient to make up for our lost time. The "surprise,"
when it comes, is quite minor and certainly not worth the wait.



ASYLUM runs 1:37. It is rated R for "strong sexuality, some violence and
brief language" and would be acceptable for older teenagers.



The film is playing in nationwide release now in the United States. In the
Silicon Valley, it is showing at the AMC theaters, the Century theaters and
the Camera Cinemas.



Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com

Email:



************************************************** *********************



Want free reviews and weekly movie and video recommendations via Email?

Just send me a letter with the word "subscribe" in the subject line.