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Shrink
R1 - America - Lions Gate Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Andreas Petersen (19th November 2009). |
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The Film
 It’s no secret that Los Angeles is as much a city as it is a place on it’s own. The city is home to its own set of rules and its own lifestyle. There’s no denying that the core of the movie industry is a breeding ground for drama itself. Sometimes, the examination of what makes L.A. what it is can be fascinating and insightful, from books such as "Less Than Zero," to films like "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" (2005). Here, with "Shrink," a look at the machine of Hollywood is examined through the eyes of a psychiatrist who’s patients are primarily involved in the movies. The result is so stale however, I feel bad even mentioning the previous works in this paragraph, as they exist on an entirely different playing field. Henry Carter (Kevin Spacey) is a celebrity shrink who has his own set of problems. Also, he smokes a lot of marijuana, and this is something that director Jonas Pate does not want you to forget. I would say that during about seventy percent of his time on screen, Carter is smoking weed. Also, it’s not like he’s doing stuff while smoking, he just smokes, and it got to the point where I wanted to shout “I GET IT” at the screen. Anyway, as time goes on, we meet Carter’s friend and aspiring screenwriter Jeremy (Mark Webber), and a few of his patients, including an aging actress (Saffron Burrows), a germ phobic agent (Dallas Roberts), and a pro-bono teenager/movie fan (Keke Palmer). It’s obvious what the movie is trying to say. The movie has a number of moral messages intended on skewering the vapid nature of Hollywood as seen through its own. No one wants to hire an older women for sexy roles. No one wants to help out a struggling writer. No one has more problems (or smokes more weed) than the psychiatrist. I really get it, and I’m partly sympathetic. The main problem is that the movie lacks any sort of subtlety at all. Everything that could be interesting about the movie is spelled out for the viewer. Characters scream at the top of their lungs what is going on. “Do you even like movies?” an assistant asks her agent boss. “Is this a therapy session?” an actor asks Carter as me buys pot. Even if the movie didn’t spell these things out for you, there still isn’t a whole lot to like here. While the cast is decent enough, the writing behind the movie is very flat. Even while characters were telling me what was happening, I had no idea why I should care. Not to mention that the movie is boringly directed and scored, and just comes off as a lackluster episode of "Friday Night Lights" (2006-Present, which Pate has directed a few episodes of). And then there’s the big whammy that just buried this movie in the ground for me. This ventures into spoiler territory, but it’s something that has to be addressed. The character of Jeremy steals a file from Carter and reads up on his pro-bono case, and decides her story is so great that he will follow her from school and befriend her and write a screenplay about her, and not even change her name. These actions are so creepy and despicable, I was nearly furious they weren’t addressed in the movie. While Jeremy should have gone to jail, people read his stalking-produced script and just say “Wow, this is really good”, including the subject of the movie. In the end, I feel like I’ve seen this movie before. Maybe not with the same cast or story, but it’s just from a long line of lazily written and produced indie films that give the art form a bad name.
Video
"Shrink" is presented in a 1.78:1 anamorphic aspect ratio format, and even for a DVD, the visuals here are pretty dire. Everything lacks any sort of interesting visual flair, and the whole thing is muddled beyond belief. I never had trouble telling what was happening on screen, but this movie looked more like a higher quality full-screen video on YouTube rather than an actual studio movie. The noise was also off the charts, with the words “snow storm” coming to mind in nearly every scene. DVD is done, and it’s movies like "Shrink" that show us why.
Audio
"Shrink" is presented in either an English Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track or an English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo, and like the visuals, this 5.1 track was pretty pathetic. I had to make sure I wasn’t watching the film’s included stereo track because that’s what it sounded like to me. I was still on the 5.1, but everything felt extremely flat, and coming out of just two speakers. I spent a good portion of the movie just waiting for any sort of life to spring from my rear speakers, but I never really got anything noteworthy. The movie is a conversation based film and I understand it doesn’t need the same sweeping audio transfer that "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" (2009) needs, but the whole thing just felt so incomplete. Optional subtitles are included in English and Spanish.
Extras
"Shrink" serves up a few extras in the form of an audio commentary, on-screen interviews featurette, deleted scenes, a music video, and theatrical trailers, all of which are detailed below. First up is the audio commentary with director Jonas Pate and producer Braxton Pope. This track was about as generic as you can get when it comes to commentaries, with the director and producer just saying “oh, ____ was just great in this scene, a real pleasure to work with” every time an actor came on screen. Pate takes a few stabs at being funny, but every time he told a lame joke, it just made me want to turn the track off. Next up is "On Camera Interviews with Director Jonas Pate and Producer Braxton Pope" featurette, which runs for 22 minutes and 31 seconds. Here, Pate and Pope sit in chairs and detail the origin story of the film, starting from inception to getting actors on board and so on and so forth. This is pretty procedural stuff if you know movies, and actually wasn’t as boring as it may sound. This is the sort of quasi-interesting stuff I felt was lacking from the duo’s commentary track. Also included are a series of deleted scenes, totaling 6 in all. Most of them serve of flesh out more auxiliary moments in the film’s backstory, and they don’t feel any better or any worse than what is in the movie already, so I both can and can’t see why they were taken out. They are: - "Scene 8a: With the Book Editor" running for 1 minute and 24 seconds, in which Carter can’t stand to discuss his book any longer. - "Scene 32: Patrick is Pitched by the Producers" running for 1 minute and 3 seconds, in which the agent tries to get a role for his aging client. - "Scene 87: The Guys Are Using You" running for 1 minute and 4 seconds, in which Jesus the drug dealer (Jesse Plemons) drops some wisdom. - "Scene 105: I Gotta Face the Cobra" running for 1 minute and 17 seconds, in which Patrick gets another session with Carter. - "Scene 135: Shamus Gets Pitched by a Rival Agent" running for 1 minute, in which the actor is approached at a party. - "Scene 139: Evan and Keira and Shamus" running for 1 minute and 28 seconds, in which the actor gets into a bar fight. Next up is a music video for Jackson Browne’s song “Here”, which runs for 2 minute and 1 second. Pretty ordinary stuff with the song (which I don’t remember ever hearing in the movie) plays over a montage of footage from the film. Also included is the theatrical trailer for the film, which runs for 2 minutes and 28 seconds. Also, we get bonus trailers for: - "Goodbye, Solo" which runs for 2 minutes and 23 seconds - "Swimming with Sharks" which runs for 2 minutes and 24 seconds. - "Mad Men: Season 2" which runs for 1 minute and 22 seconds. - "The Stoning of Soraya M" which runs for 2 minute and 19 seconds. - "The September Issue" which runs for 2 minutes and 32 seconds. - "Good Hair" which runs for 2 minutes and 31 seconds.
Overall
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