Shrink (2009)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Jonas Pate

Writer:

Thomas Moffett (screenplay)

Release Date:

6 August 2009 (Greece)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

The doctor is out.

Plot:

Unable to cope with a recent personal tragedy, LA's top celebrity shrink turns into a pothead with no concern for his appearance and a creeping sense of his inability to help his patients.

Plot Keywords:

Shrink | Drug Dealer | Script | Dead Dog | One Word Title

Cast

Kevin Spacey	...	Henry Carter
Joe Nunez	...	Recording Supervisor (as Joseph A. Nuñez)
Mark Webber	...	Jeremy
Keke Palmer	...	Jemma
Sierra Aylina McClain	...	Carina
Ada Luz Pla	...	Teacher
Saffron Burrows	...	Kate Amberson
Jack Huston	...	Shamus
Pell James	...	Daisy
Mei Melançon	...	Miyu
Dallas Roberts	...	Patrick
Andrew Sibner	...	Richie
Troy Metcalf	...	O.T.
Kendall Clement	...	Uncle Jim
Jesse Plemons	...	Jesus

MPAA:

Rated R for drug content throughout, and pervasive language including some sexual references.

Runtime:

Canada:104 min | Germany:110 min (European Film Market) | USA:104 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

USA:R (certificate #45374) | Canada:14A (Ontario) | Netherlands:6

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Ignite Entertainment

Goofs:

Continuity: When Jeremy is picking up Jemma in the video store, the prominent clock over the door jumps backwards about 3.5 hours during the half-minute conversation.

Quotes:

Henry Carter: It's grief. They want you to have some kind of normal response to grief, you know, so they don't have to watch. But it's *mine*.

Movie Connections:

References Ordinary People (1980)

Soundtrack:

Vintage Sci-Fi Soundtrack

'Shrink' (2009)

Unlike last year's similarly undercirculated film chronicling the interconnecting lives of several people in the Hollywood film biz, 'What Just Happened,' 'Shrink' succeeds in dismantling the barrier between characters and audiences.

The film's main character, Doctor Henry Carter (Kevin Spacey), is just one of several that manages to slowly earn your compassion. Kevin Spacey has always done an excellent job playing Kevin Spacey, but his role as Carter gives him a slightly larger emotional gamut to run, making it his best of the decade.

The rest of the cast (including a seldom seen Saffron Burrows and an unusually placed Robin Williams) complements the core crux of Spacey's character, especially Dallas Roberts' Patrick, an eccentric agent.

As the film plays out, it seems as though it will have a hard time wrapping up all of the sub- plots in introduces, as the list of important characters is relatively long. Unfortunately, that seems to be the case and is perhaps the only noteworthy flaw of 'Shrink' (a big flaw, however).

That said, even if you walk out wanting a little more from one or more characters, you'll still walk about thinking about them all, as each is memorable in his or her humanity.

The New York Times review suggests that some of the characters are a little too "sketchy" and the plot somewhat "contrived," but with a lot of films, those criticisms are a little misleading. To vehemently endorse realism is to take away from what makes these characters so relatable. If some character skeletons have become cliché, it's because audiences connect with those clichés. And, at the end of the day, while 'Shrink' is probably a more than slightly inaccurate portrayal of the world and characters it presents, that inaccuracy doesn't matter when you empathize with those characters.