Unsane (2018)
Steven Soderbergh’s first horror/thriller film covered some new territory, but it could have been much better. Filmed entirely on an iPhone 7 Plus and shot in only 10 days, it gave plenty room for error. Though conceptually interesting, the movie occasionally crossed from interesting to unbelievable. And though it was done quickly, with a low budget of $1.2 million (according to The Times, UK), and done using an iPhone app called FiLMic Pro… a question arises of “was that really necessary?”
THE PLOT
This is the story of a woman named Sawyer Valentini (played by The Crown’s Claire Foy) who is involuntarily admitted to a psychiatric ward following a seamlessly standard and uneventful counseling session. While detained, something else emerges, but is it real or just on her head?
As you may agree, the story is quite unique and interesting. Problems with the film arise quickly however as the the psychiatric protocol, setting, living space, behavior penalties, security, et cetera are elements that are just not based in reality.
The rush that the cast must have been under played a role in its mediocrity, however the story by Jonathan Bernstein and James Greer (and an extremely poor ending in my opinion) was the major downfall. Claire Foy, an English actress performed great at times, but her American accent was weak and her character’s actions were questionable at times. Claire shared the screen with: Joshua Leonard, Jay Pharaoh, Juno Temple and Amy Irving – all of which did a decent job.
Again, I feel like the story could have been much better and because of this, it’s a far cry from winning any awards. This does not stop me from wanting to see Claire Foy! As accent/dialect coach Erik Singer has said, most of the time when actors or actresses aren’t able to quite “pull it off”, it’s due to not enough rehearsal/preparation time. I don’t know the specifics but I can surely guess this is the reason.
What did you think of this one?
________________________________________________________________________________________________
TRAILER :
________________________________________________________________________________________________
A note from Dialect Coach:
________________________________________________________________________________________________