Asylum (2005)
Runtime: 1 hr 39 mins
Theatrical Release: Aug 12, 2005 Limited
Box Office: $295,287
Synopsis: Set in 1950s England, ASYLUM, a tale of erotic obsession, tells the story of Stella Raphael (Natasha Richardson), a restless, beautiful woman who desperately desires to find in romantic love the one thing that will change everything. When her husband Max (Hugh Bonneville), an... Set in 1950s England, ASYLUM, a tale of erotic obsession, tells the story of Stella Raphael (Natasha Richardson), a restless, beautiful woman who desperately desires to find in romantic love the one thing that will change everything. When her husband Max (Hugh Bonneville), an ambitious forensic psychiatrist, is appointed Deputy Superintendent at a high-security psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane, Stella and her young son come with him to live on the grounds. Being in proximity of madness has a dangerous attraction for this woman; with its eerie, gothic beauty and endless echoing corridors, the institution itself seems to draw Stella in. Then she meets inmate Edgar Stark (Marton Csokas), an artist confined for murdering his wife in a jealous rage. There is a visceral connection between the two. Stella finds release and a sense of herself reborn in Edgar's embrace. Senior physician Peter Cleave (Ian McKellen), long in line for the position to which Max has been promoted, watches carefully as Stella and Edgar bond – "sexual pathology" is his particular field of interest. The cunning Dr. Cleave is a master observer, one who especially prides himself on manipulation. Stella is now the center of attention for three men, each of whom desires to possess her: the husband, the lover and the doctor. When Edgar escapes the asylum and their secret affair is revealed, Stella determines to continue on with her lover, no matter what the cost. What began as a fierce brave step towards freedom now threatens to bring Stella to other, even more intense forms of confinement. Having taken the risk, there is no turning back. --© Paramount Classics [More]
Genre: Thriller
Starring: Natasha Richardson, Ian McKellen, Marton Csokas, Hugh Bonneville, Joss Ackland
Screenwriter: Patrick Marber
Producer: Mace Neufeld, David Allen
Composer: Mark Mancina
Buy It On DVD
Reviews
offers a bleak vision of the Fifties, where an outbreak of passion or an artistic impulse would be quickly subjected, like any other madness, to containment.
Despite a superb cast, artful set design and seductive cinematography, Asylum remains a lovingly lensed missed opportunity.
Asylum had promise. But it's bad enough to make one wonder just who had the loose screws -- the characters, or the people who filmed them?
Patrick McGrath's screenplay, based on his novel, has moments big and small, delivered in appropriate dollops of awfulness.
It's a movie you fall for or you don't, and like Stella, I am not ashamed I did.
There is nothing to Stella's character -- or any of these characters, for that matter -- that you can relate to.
So obsessed with rendering Patrick McGrath's exquisitely twisted Gothic novel as a refined affair that it forgets less ambitious pursuits, like sussing out a way to keep us awake.
Based on Pat McCabe's moody novel, Asylum has an over-the-top feverishness that suits its premise.
Once characters' actions lose credibility, it's hard to empathize with them, no matter how well the roles are played.
Marton Csokas ... comes across as a hybrid of Russell Crowe and Clive Owen in full-on brooding mode and has a genuine chemistry with Richardson that goes some way to explaining why she stays with him as a long as she does.
The film wryly wonders whether the lunatics have taken over not just the asylum but the entire world as well.
A troubling psychological drama about illicit passion leading to tragedy.
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