Stonehearst Asylum (2014)
Directed by Brad Anderson
An Oxford Medical School graduate takes a position at a mental institution and soon becomes obsessed with a female mental patient, but he has no idea of a recent and horrifying staffing change.
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Joseph Gangemi’s screenplay is based on a humorously macabre 1844 Edgar Allan Poe story that’s been adapted numerous times before, notably by two screen surrealists: Juan Lopez Moctezuma in his 1973 cult film “The Mansion of Madness,” and Jan Svankmajer with 2005’s “Lunacy” (which also took inspiration from the Marquis de Sade).
With a look and feel quite reminiscent of 2010’s Shutter Island, Stonehearst Asylum is replete with dusky caverns, hidden passageways, shadows, secrets, and lies.
Like Martin Scorsese 's "Shutter Island," "Stonehearst Asylum" starts with the hysteria knob set at 11 and goes up from there.
Echoes of “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” and “Shutter Island” hang heavy in the air, again promising a film with something to say and personality to spare; setting a table on to which too slight a meal is placed.
The presence of Kingsley—as well as all the ornate cabinetry and shadowy atmosphere—might suggest Shutter Island , but the real referent appears to be Tod Browning’s Freaks, with its complicated mixture of fear and sympathy.
Stonehearst Asylum director Brad Anderson has very clearly seen Shutter Island.
Arriving at the titular remote sanatorium (think Shutter Island with even more creaky ooga-booga), Jim Sturgess’s naive Edward discovers glamorous Eliza Graves (Kate Beckinsale) unhappily ensconced amid indistinguishable doctors and patients.
The presence of Kingsley—as well as all the ornate cabinetry and shadowy atmosphere—might suggest Shutter Island , but the real referent appears to be Tod Browning’s Freaks, with its complicated mixture of fear and sympathy.
I also was glad to see him onscreen again with Caine, because they were so good together in the Sherlock Holmes comedy, “Without a Clue.”
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Echoes of “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” and “Shutter Island” hang heavy in the air, again promising a film with something to say and personality to spare; setting a table on to which too slight a meal is placed.
As Newgate—genial and impotent in the manner of Keanu Reeves's Jonathan Harker in Bram Stoker's Dracula—acquaints himself with this new scientific method, two abrupt developments alter the proceedings.
But then you notice that the stars are Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe) and Kate Beckinsale (Underworld), which is certainly interesting enough to make one look a little closer, and note that the supporting cast includes people like Michael Caine (Get Carter), Ben Kingsley (Gandhi), Sinead Cusack (V for Vendetta), Brendan Gleeson (28 Days Later), Jason Flemyng (Below), and David Thewlis (The Big Lebowski) … and if you’re any sort of film fan, you then peer in for an even closer look.
At best it’s hammy, Hammer-ish fun, although it has none of the tension of Brad Anderson’s underappreciated potboiler The Call, and none of the wit of The Ninth Configuration , which remains the best screen tale of lunatics taking over an asylum.
But then you notice that the stars are Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe) and Kate Beckinsale (Underworld), which is certainly interesting enough to make one look a little closer, and note that the supporting cast includes people like Michael Caine (Get Carter), Ben Kingsley (Gandhi), Sinead Cusack (V for Vendetta), Brendan Gleeson (28 Days Later), Jason Flemyng (Below), and David Thewlis (The Big Lebowski) … and if you’re any sort of film fan, you then peer in for an even closer look.
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From “Across the Universe” to “21” to “One Day” to “Upside Down,” this guy repeatedly contributes nothing (or less) to movies that are, at best, extremely challenging to endure.
Sturgess has gained a dubious reputation for phoned-in leading-man roles in expensive flops ( Across the Universe , Upside Down , Cloud Atlas ) and contributes another pallid performance here, not helped by the unfortunate juxtaposition with Caine and Kingsley's barnstorming turns.
But then you notice that the stars are Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe) and Kate Beckinsale (Underworld), which is certainly interesting enough to make one look a little closer, and note that the supporting cast includes people like Michael Caine (Get Carter), Ben Kingsley (Gandhi), Sinead Cusack (V for Vendetta), Brendan Gleeson (28 Days Later), Jason Flemyng (Below), and David Thewlis (The Big Lebowski) … and if you’re any sort of film fan, you then peer in for an even closer look.
Anderson and screenwriter Joe Gangemi (Wind Chill) do a fine job of balancing dark humor, creepy vibes, and outright melodrama — although the tongue-in-cheek tone is occasionally undone by some of the plot’s more florid romantic divergences — but frankly Stonehearst Asylum is simply worth seeing for the ensemble cast, the enjoyably eerie asylum setting, and John Debney’s adorably old-school “Hammer vibe” score.