Panoply of British talent makes for a wonderful reimagining of Poe’s creepy tale, writes Debbie Lynn Elias
Madness and mayhem are the watchwords of the day when it comes to Stonehearst Asylum. Directed by Brad Anderson from a script by Joe Gangemi based on the 1844 story “The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Feather ” by Edgar Allan Poe, the films abounds with twists and turns set against a richly textured and lush, stylized Victorian-era visual palette. Boasting a panoply of British and Irish talent including Sir Ben Kingsley, Sir Michael Caine, David Thewlis, Brendan Gleeson, Jim Sturgess and Kate Beckinsale, among others, Anderson’s genre mash-up touches on everything from Hitchcockian suspense to period drama to bloody horror to romance and even some macabre humor. Although things feel a bit directionally convoluted at times, where Anderson excels is keeping us riveted to the screen with the constant intrigue of this delicious descent into madness.
Setting the stage, we meet “The Alienist” (Brendan Gleeson), a Victorian-era medical school professor-cum-surgeon. Typical of the medical thinking of the day, women are dismissed as mere chattel and their illnesses are all diagnosed as “hysteria” with favored treatments being electro-shock therapy and placement in an asylum; after all, “every mad woman insists she’s sane” when she really isn’t. And as The Alienist demonstrates on a drugged-out and obviously distressed young woman who pleads for sanctuary and help from the observing medical students, in The Alienist’s thinking, a grope, jab and fondle of the females also goes a long way.
Meet recent Oxford graduate Edward Newgate (Jim Sturgess). Eager for clinical experience, he arrives at Stonehearst Asylum on Christmas Eve 1899 seeking a residency with Dr. Silas Lamb (Ben Kingsley), director of Stonehearst. Expecting to the learn cutting edge treatment methods, Newgate is unprepared for Lamb’s methodology. The inmates are running loose in the asylum. No shock treatments, no isolation, no restraints, no medication, the inmates are given free reign with every whim and desire not only met but encouraged.
And then there is Eliza Graves (Kate Beckinsale). Smitten with Eliza from the moment he lays eyes on her, Newgate believes her to be one of the staff and sets out to woo her. Imagine his surprise when he learns that she is, in fact, a patient, put into the asylum by her very brutal and vicious husband.
And more surprises are in store. In a visit to the bowels of the facility, Edward discovers the inmates have taken control of the asylum, with the real head of the facility, Dr. Salt (Michael Caine), imprisoned along with head nurse Mrs. Pike and the rest of the surviving staff. According to Salt and Mrs. Pike, the “lunatic demon” Lamb, himself at the asylum thanks to a complete psychotic break associated with war crimes and atrocities he committed, has already killed numerous staff and is now plotting to poison the rest. Knowing he must do something to help, but not wanting to leave for fear of never seeing Eliza again, Edward instead tries to gain more information on Lamb, believing he can formulate his own plan for Salt to regain control of Stonehearst.
As Edward Newgate, Jim Sturgess steals the heart with a sincerity and kindness, while Kate Beckinsale glides through much of the film with an elegant beauty. But on the turn of a dime, we see the strong, confident, defiance so familiar to all who have seen her in the “Underworld” franchise.
From the moment we see Edward’s carriage pulling up to the asylum in a steely grey fog, Brad Anderson’s direction sets the tone for psychological terror that is a fitting tribute to the tale’s originator, Edgar Allen Poe. Together Anderson and cinematographer Thomas Yatsko spare nothing when depicting the medical horrors of this world, with primitive electroshock treatments, rapes, homicidal tendencies and atrocities and bodies burning in fires, just to name a few of the visual treats on offer here.
Directed by: Brad Anderson. Written by: Joe Gangemi, based on the 1844 story “The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Feather ” by Edgar Allan Poe. Cast: Kate Beckinsale, Sir Ben Kingsley, Sir Michael Caine, Jim Sturgess, David Thewlis, Brendan Gleeson, Sophie Kennedy Clarke
Rated: PG-13, Run time: 112 minutes
