Unsane - Review

Unsane

Director Steven Soderbergh who is famous for his cutting edge eclectic story telling with films from “Sex, Lies and Video Tape”, “Oceans 11” to “The Girlfriend Experience” (both a film and TV show now) now takes his vision towards a psychological path and turn with his latest project in the film called “Unsane”. A story shot entirely on an I-phone, Soderbergh develops a story largely around just one fearless character named Sawyer Valentini played by actress Claire Foy who is currently on the acclaimed show “The Crown” playing Queen Elizabeth II.

At the onset we see Sawyer who has just relocated from Boston to Pennsylvania to escape from the man who's been stalking her for the last two years. While consulting with a therapist about her concerns, Valentini unwittingly signs in for a voluntary 24-hour commitment to the Highland Creek Behavioral Center. Her stay at the facility soon gets extended when doctors and nurses begin to question her sanity. Sawyer now believes that one of the staffers is her stalker and she'll do whatever it takes to stay alive and fight her way out.

REVIEW: “Unsane” early on had some very compelling moments that were both thrilling and creepy while evoking a genuine sense of the "who done it" experience with some smart execution.The viewing audience from the very beginning is thrust into actually questioning whether Sawyer is insane or not? Or is she just imagining she is insane? Or are the people working at the hospital insane? Or is this story just a dream about being trapped in a hospital of insane people? And with a running time of 1:47 minutes it is around the 1 hour mark that we have a definitive answer to those many questions. But what transpires next, specifically in the remaining 47 minutes is an exercise of clever manipulative directing on Soderbergh’s part by conjuring up some universal fears such as issues involving claustrophobia, paranoia, being out of control, being distress, being assaulted in your sleep and having other people control your fate without you ever having any say. Does it work? Well mostly yes and sometimes no?

On the “yes” part I liked “Unsane” mostly because it pushed the envelope in a dramtically smart and imaginative way of an old story that we have seen many times before in film and real life about women simply not being believed. This film's story is an especially relevant through the real life prism of the current "Me Too Movement" in those well documented instances where women when compelled to speaking out to relay their feelings and concerns about some male threat in their lives, having others in authority universally dismiss those concerns as the woman being “overly emotional”. And even when the woman has demonstrative proof to verify otherwise, they are still dismssed as "not being a big deal" in the larger scheme of things.. And while in “Unsane” Sawyer experienced these very same problems, what was refreshing about her story‘s track was she never let herself become a victim to the events happening around her by just sitting idly by waiting for that masculine figure to rescue her in the nick of time. Sawyer in "Unsane" was ferocious and let everyone know she was ferocious to the very end.

On the “no” part, “Unsane’ did spiral downward briefly here and there with some predictable cliche scenes that were meant to be clever twists and turns in the plot. They were not that clever, especially if you can see them coming with a screenplay that gave up the game of the situation of why she was being forcible kept in “commitment”.  On a couple occasions the writing just gave away too much up far too early.

"Unsane" is deliciously weird, deliciously creepy and deliciously gritty with directorial craftsmanship that still had me glued to a bulk of the film's story with intrigue throughout.  And in spite of some minor flaws that took some of the guessing away from what Sawyers’ eventual fate would be I still found “Unsane” to be insanely good.

3.50 Stars