Sometimes I wonder if a film intrigues simply because it’s caught at the right moment. Last night I watched
The Scribbler (2014), courtesy of Netflix. The central figure, a beautiful young woman, suffers multiple personality disorder. She is treated by a doctor who hooks her to a machine capable of wiping out her extraneous personalities one by one. Trouble is, when it comes down to the last two, the choice is difficult, risky. Will she erase her “real” self? The flick is far from perfect, and nothing manifests it more than that the character is sent to a voluntary asylum with a portable device, in charge of the reductions herself. 38% of the inmates commit suicide -- or are they being murdered? The Scribbler, who writes her notes backwards, is the prime suspect. The cast is filled with familiar faces, most of whose names were unknown to me. The star is Katie Cassidy, daughter of former teen idol David. Michelle Trachtenberg and Michael Imperioli play the authorities trying to get to the truth. Billy Campbell plays the doctor. And what would a movie like this be without someone like Gina Gershon, whose career is filled with off beat roles? Garret Dillahunt and Eliza Dushku are on hand, as is former XXX star Sasha Grey, whose last porno was
Anal Artists (2012). There were no ugly people at this nut house. What I enjoyed most was the ideas thrown around about identity. Most humans suffer a simple duality, battling the temptations of our darker selves. Any more incarnations are considered abnormal, although the film questions this. Given that the heroine decides to scale back, it provides an answer. Who can explain such questions convincingly? Theories abound, but has anyone really gotten to the bottom of human behavior? And what is essentially a thriller, running only 90 minutes, cannot be expected to offer valuable insight. 1827 users at IMDb have rated the film, forging to a consensus of 5.3 of ten, way too low. On a scale of five, I say 3.75. The commentary section yielded only one interesting tidbit, likening the film to
Identity (2003), which I’ve seen but recall only vaguely. I remember being embarrassed that a young friend understood it better than I, and thinking that he should be the one writing novels. John Suits directed, his third stint at the helm of a full feature. He has 22 credits as a producer, most of them independent fare unfamiliar to me. Dan Schaffer adapted the screenplay from his graphic novel, copies of which sell at Amazon at a whopping $499-$549.
It was one of those rare day at the floating book shop when all went well, from parking to sales. My thanks to Lila, who bought
Killing, and Lorraine who purchased
A Hitch in Twilight; to the lovely, young Russian mom who bought three books in her native language; to the woman who bought Jean Auel's wildly popular
Clan of the Cave Bear; to B.S. Bob, who bought the Ray Bradbury classic,
The Martian Chronicles; and to Bad News Billy, who bought the Modern Country CD I'd recently burned.
Vic's 3rd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3
Vic's Web Site:
http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature/
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