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Shrink (2008)

tomatometer

29

Average Rating: 4.6/10
Reviews Counted: 62
Fresh: 18 | Rotten: 44

Kevin Spacey's performance is almost sharp enough to save this Hollywood dramedy from itself, but in the end, he's dragged down by a cliched script and indifferent direction.

25

Average Rating: 4.4/10
Critic Reviews: 24
Fresh: 6 | Rotten: 18

Kevin Spacey's performance is almost sharp enough to save this Hollywood dramedy from itself, but in the end, he's dragged down by a cliched script and indifferent direction.

audience

52

liked it
Average Rating: 3/5
User Ratings: 41,860

My Rating

Movie Info

A jaded psychiatrist takes on a pro bono case that puts his professionalism to the ultimate test in director Jonas Pate's knowing exposé of the "other" Hollywood. Between sorting through the insecurities of a fading film starlet (Saffron Burrows), a struggling writer (Mark Webber), and an obsessive-compulsive talent agent (Dallas Roberts), A-list psychiatrist Henry Carter (Kevin Spacey) barely has the time to deal with his own problems. Suddenly, into the middle of Henry's malaise wanders a

R, 1 hr. 50 min.

Drama, Comedy

Thomas Moffett

Sep 29, 2009

$93.2k

Roadside Attractions

All Critics (62) | Top Critics (24) | Fresh (20) | Rotten (44) | DVD (4)

Man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward, and when those sparks emanate from a doobie clutched by Kevin Spacey, a smug critique of the American dream is sure to follow.

August 20, 2009 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

I'm not his manager, but I wonder if Kevin Spacey would profit from laying off the sardonic, disaffected, emotionally numb characters for a while. They're criminally easy for him at this point in his career.

July 31, 2009 Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | Comment
Chicago Tribune
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The characters are so flatly conceived and their dilemmas so familiar that you wonder if the filmmakers even aspired to be original. Luckily, Kevin Spacey plays Carter with scene-saving grace.

July 31, 2009 Full Review Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune | Comment
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Top Critic IconTop Critic

There really was a much better comedy here than melodrama.

July 31, 2009 Comment
Hollywood Reporter
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Some of the humor is delicious. And there are a few fine moments of truth and pathos, most of them addressing a subset of grief often ignored on film.

July 31, 2009 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | Comment
San Francisco Chronicle
Top Critic IconTop Critic

No one knows why bad things happen to good people. But we do know why bad things happen to good film ideas. They get ruined by poor scripts and indifferent direction.

July 31, 2009 Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | Comment
Globe and Mail
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The film, expertly played by actors who look as if they know exactly what they are talking about, is a bit like a voyeur's view of the Hollywood we only hear about in scandal sheets.

June 9, 2010 Full Review Source: This is London | Comment
This is London

Shrink neatly intertwines the lives of the leading characters in a manner reminiscent of Robert Altman's Short Cuts but without that film's haunting poignancy.

June 7, 2010 Full Review Source: Daily Express | Comment
Daily Express

A limply-organised multi-story snoozefest from Jonas Pate.

June 3, 2010 Full Review Source: Daily Telegraph | Comment
Daily Telegraph

Though it dwells on the seamier side of showbiz -- a seedy, pill-popping actor and a slutty casting-couch actress turn up in subplots -- it ultimately buys into the fantasy land it had started out debunking.

June 3, 2010 Full Review Source: Radio Times | Comment
Radio Times

Blackly funny but never as vicious as it clearly wants to be, this rather nihilistic look at modern society keeps us hooked with desperate and lost characters who all have a whiff of soulful humanity.

June 3, 2010 Full Review Source: Shadows on the Wall | Comment
Shadows on the Wall

Sharp and edgy but with a touching warmth, this satire piques the heart as well as the funny bone.

June 2, 2010 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | Comment
Empire Magazine

Throw it in the shark tank with Crash, Grand Canyon, Magnolia, etc.

May 6, 2010 Full Review Source: East Bay Express | Comment
East Bay Express

Shrink has fine acting, intriguing characters and moments of humor and pathos, but I left the theater feeling a bit cheated.

April 30, 2010 Full Review Source: culturevulture.net | Comment
culturevulture.net

It's an impressively convoluted piece of writing, but it loses it shine when it becomes clear that neither Moffett nor Pate know where they are going with these stories

October 6, 2009 Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | Comment
Filmcritic.com

It's another Los Angeles movie that is alternately self-congratulatory and self-pitying...

September 28, 2009 Full Review Source: MSN.com | Comment (1)
MSN.com

Though a little too interconnected when it comes to narrative coincidences, the emotional intensity laced with deliciously dark humor and nasty neo-screwball wit, outweighs the gimmickry.

September 26, 2009 Full Review Source: NewsBlaze | Comment
NewsBlaze

Though a little too interconnected when it comes to narrative coincidences, the emotional intensity laced with deliciously dark humor and nasty neo-screwball wit, outweighs the gimmickry.

September 26, 2009 Full Review Source: NewsBlaze | Comment
NewsBlaze

[The characters'] fates, naturally, intertwine, with a resolution that could only occur in Hollywood.

August 14, 2009 Full Review Source: Oregonian | Comment
Oregonian

As all of Shrink's seemingly disparate stories begin to fall too cleverly into each other, it's easy to be distracted by some fine performances.

August 6, 2009 Full Review Source: PopMatters | Comment
PopMatters

Spacey is mesmerizing as the "compassion fatigued" Carter. The pain and anger of his character are palpable, as is his heart-wrenching frustration.

August 3, 2009 Full Review Source: Beliefnet | Comment (1)
Beliefnet

Shrink reminds us why Kevin Spacey matters.

August 1, 2009 Full Review Source: What Would Toto Watch? | Comment
What Would Toto Watch?

...ultimately less successful as a fully-realized drama than as a showcase for its myriad of talented actors.

July 31, 2009 Full Review Source: Reel Film Reviews | Comment
Reel Film Reviews
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Shrink

Too much crowd, but almost everyone did right to their part, without which it'd have been a challenge to watch the movie.In the wake of my conscience (BTW, did I ever tell you that it exists??), I couldn't help myself leaving this comment without mentioning that Kevin Spacey was, as usual, incredible.

November 28, 2009
imrealgod

Super Reviewer

Cast: Kevin Spacey, Keke Palmer, Jack Huston, Saffron Burrows, Mark Webber, Dallas Roberts, Griffin Dunne, Pell James, Andrew Sibner, Robin Williams, Laura Ramsey, Robert Loggia, Jesse Plemons, Gore Vidal, Derek Alvarado Director: Jonas Pate Summary: In the wake of a personal tragedy, Hollywood's psychiatrist to the

September 24, 2009
LWOODS04
♥˩ƳИИ ƜѲѲƉƧ♥

Super Reviewer

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