My Review of Unsane (2018)

 

Written by Jonathan Bernstein And James Greer

Directed by Steven Soderbergh

Sawyer: "I'm not fucking crazy!"

I have it admit for both a psychological thriller and a horror movie, this is definitely an unusual film to watch. I'd even go as far as to say it's a bit of an acquired taste and that's putting it mildly. I'm not sure whether I liked this film or not.

I do of course like Claire Foy, who thanks to the first two seasons of Netflix's The Crown has deservedly become a household name. In this divisive thriller, she's playing the role of stressed out banker, Sawyer Valentini who finds herself being duped into committing herself at an unwanted stay at Highland Creek Behavorial Centre and it's from there that things naturally go bad for her.

Her counselor tricked her into the involuntary stay and once there, she's at the mercy of the police being unwilling to help her, unsympathetic medical staff, an annoying room mate named Violet (Juno Temple) who enjoys antagonising Sawyer at every turn and an unwelcome blast from the past in the form of stalker, David Strine (Joshua Leonard) who has everyone else convinced that she's crazy.

The only allies that Sawyer have are her supportive well meaning mother, Angela (Amy Irving) and undercover journalist Nate Hoffman (Jay Pharaoh) but an overzealous David takes both of the before managing to get Sawyer all to himself in the final act of this movie.

The back and forth between both Claire Foy and Joshua Leonard as both Sawyer and David try to outwit each other is decent enough but not ultimately not enough to elevate the mostly average material they have to work with. David's also a pretty bland and not really that threatening a villain, despite his body count in the movie.

I quite liked Jay Pharaoh's character and it was a pity that he didn't make it out of this one alive, even if the movie avoided the trope of pairing Sawyer with Nate. As for the ending, it was downbeat in a way but it could've been worse.

- Soderbergh directed the entire movie on an iPhone7 Plus in 4K and you can definitely tell at certain moments when watching it.

- There's a moment where Soderbetgh's 2002 movie Full Frontal is playing in the common room. 

- Incidents like what happened to Sawyer with people being involuntarily committed until their insurances pay out do happen in real life.

- Chronology: Gonna assume it's when the movie itself was released.

Unsane on paper is a decent and interesting idea but despite some solid performances from Foy, Leonard and Pharaoh, it's a largely unsatisfying and disjointed film. It's fine to watch for the length it runs for but you'll come out of it with the feeling that it could've given a lot more than it did.

Rating: 6 out of 10