Review of Special (2006) by Roberto R — 12 Aug 2008

A fairly low-key film, I heard about it by chance. It is an amusing but somewhat depressing study of mental illness. Don't let that put you off. It's good and the film length doesn't out stay it's welcome by being dragging in its narrative. It also has a dig at pharmaceutical companies and their methods.

Michael Rapaport plays les, who is a lonely, meter maid who spends his time reading comic books and hanging out with the two-stoner storeowners where he gets his books. So, he begins drug trails for a antidepressant drug called 'special' or Specioprin Hydrochloride, which turns out has a different effect on our protagonist by making him think he is developing superpowers such as flight and telekinesis. So he quits his job and makes himself a costume and goes and does what he sees as crime fighting, but he just ends up being a danger to himself.

So the film shows what he can think he can do, to what people around him see. This comes across as slapstick, but he doesn't remain unscratched. An interesting aspect of the film is that is shows how family and friends can't always deal or know how to handle loved ones with a mental illness. It plays up the plot devices and the kind of conventional narratives that comic books and films have. Which was a flaw with the portrayal of the drug developers as mysterious men in suits who were chasing him! But if you like, say comic books, indie American films and a thoughtful and slightly humorous look at schizophrenia you might get something out of it.