Shrink

Shrink is my sort of movie. Every character is racked with problems, some more obvious than others, better still they are all high-flying businessmen or film stars, so as everyday folk we can revel in their demise.

 

From the off, however, it is clear that lead character Henry Carter (played by Kevin Spacey) is not just struggling with a few demons – he is going through hell.  Carter is the shrink around whom Hollywood heroes hover when their world comes crashing down and, ironically, he doesn't give a shit.

Unshaven and ravaged by pot-smoking, he awakens on the sofa, or by the pool, seemingly anywhere except his bed, and a telling glance towards his room indicates somebody may be missing.

It's a familiar plot; man helps other people for a living, refusing to acknowledge his own more-serious problems but it doesn't hamper our intrigue. 

Unlike modern Hollywood epics or fast-paced action thrillers, the characters' development is a gradual process. 

Patrick (Dallas Roberts) is a neurotic bigwig, comical in his paranoia but tragic in his reliance upon nasally ingested pick-me-ups. Jack Holden (Robin Williams) is a "functioning alcoholic" scared to settle into his marriage and Kate is a thirtysomething struggling with her public perception.

Director Jonas Pate effectively gives the audience the role of "shrink", flicking between patients revealing more about the subject and their problems during each "session" we have with them. 

As the group of struggling stars begin to cross paths, their character traits weave a net with which they drag each other down but, when Carter's friends and family confront him about his spiralling addictions, his heartfelt and desperate reaction indicates the psychologist is harbouring bigger problems than most.

In his hi-octane world of star names and endless come-downs, catharsis comes in the form of two innocent youngsters; Jemma is a film fanatic, forced unwillingly into Carter's Hollywood hubbub and Jeremy is a desperate screen writer, bent on crowbarring his way in.

Neither have fame or fortune but their arrival in the troubled world of harrowed has-beens could be enough to save everybody concerned.