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ASYLUM Send This Review to a Friend
A steamy concoction of love, psychiatry and terror, ‘Asylum” engages more because of its stars than credibility. There is also abundant atmosphere to help it along under the direction of David MacKenzie from a screenplay by Patrick Marber and Chrysanthy Balis based on Patrick McGrath’s novel.
The ever-fascinating Natasha Richardson plays Stella, the unhappy wife of Max (Hugh Bonneville), who is a deputy superintendent at a psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane. Max is detached as a result of dedication to his work and his steely nature, and doesn’t pay much attention to their 10-year-old son Charlie (Gus Lewis). Max’s rival at the institution, the manipulative Peter Cleave, is played with a prickly tone by Ian McKellen.
There is some dangerous mingling at the asylum.Trouble begins when Stella is turned on by Edgar (Marton Csokas), a wily but sexually attractive patient who has murdered his wife. Young Charlie also gets on with Edgar, who befriends him. The seductive Edgar and Stella begin their sexcapdes, which get progressively more intense, and when Edgar manages to escape she is hell bent on continuing their relationship despite all efforts by her husband to thwart her and the authorities to capture the escapee.
Given Edgar’s dangerous mental state, Stella is at risk. But she is determined, much to the dismay of her husband, who keeps Charlie from her but extracts a promise that she will mend her ways in return for resuming a normal life. Will she? Can she? What’s her mental and emotional state?
The manipulative use of psychiatry by Cleave is questionable, but “Asylum” isn’t a film that trades on reality. The screenplay sets up an ultra strange situation, and while one can get caught up in it thanks to the enticing group of actors assembled, it is really a weird movie, compelling just because it is so odd and carries such a sense of doom. A Paramount Classics release.
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