Review of Unsane (2018) by Tim M — 05 Nov 2018

There are many cool things about UNSANE. You may have heard it was filmed on a iphone. This technique gives it an immediacy that's pretty gripping, and also a graininess that makes the settings (mostly an asylum) even creepier. It's not like the "found footage" movies (BLAIR WITCH or PARANORMAL ACTIVITY) where a shaking camera and bad camera work are featured. It's well crafted, edited, etc. But it still has the feel of something made fast, on-the-fly and urgently. (And cheaply, I guess.).

We get to meet Claire Foy's character, a supremely irritating lady whom we still feel some sympathy for because she has been the victim of a stalker in the past. In fact, she moved to a whole new city to get away from this guy. So perhaps we can forgive her for being a bit brittle and touchy. When she seeks out psychiatric help, she inadvertently signs herself into the inpatient unit at the psych hospital. And despite her protestations that "there's been a horrible misunderstanding" she is sucked into the life and routine of this squalid little place. And she begins to see an employee of the hospital that she believes is her stalker. But, of course, no one else believes her. Is she nuts or is this guy really hiding in plain site?

Director Steven Soderbergh is no slouch, and he creates numerous tense scenes, whether quite but urgent conversations between Foy and other characters or moments of quick, bloody action. He uses his iphone to slip into places and give us angles that would be tougher with a different camera (although I'm not 100% sure being able to look up the nose of an actress is particularly helpful).

The problem is with the script. In order for the plot pieces to progress as they do, Foy's character has to do and say some REALLY dumb things. This character apparently has a poor instinct for what to say when, or when to lose her temper. She is really her own worst enemy in this movie, and at times, her actions were eye-rollingly bad. Her character isn't some "teen slasher victim #5"...she's supposed to be smart, savvy business professional. So in the end, despite her physical commitment to the role, I just didn't buy Foy's character. Not sure ANY actress could have made this a believable person, though.

Therefore, the film gets just 3 stars. I think it's worth seeing, but you aren't missing a classic if you decide to give it a miss.