DELIRIUM is certainly a high-quality, well-made movie with excellent production values and above average acting. That having been said, I found it unsatisfying and disappointing because it's infected with lazy storytelling and exhausted, hackneyed plot elements, and there just isn't much that a high-quality production can do to freshen up old movie tropes that have been worn into ruts long ago.
As there are already many reviews at the time of this writing, I will leave the positive comments to others (probably coming from those who haven't lived long enough to have seen the same plot points a dozen times by now in other films as I have...) and simply focus on the aspects that kept me from liking it.
The vast majority of the tension and creepiness DELIRIUM manages to achieve relies all but exclusively on the vehicle of the protagonist being apparently unable to distinguish between hallucinations and reality. Even on his meds, the protagonist sees horrific visions that he has to vocally convince himself aren't really there. So here he is, rattling around in a giant, opulent mansion (in which his father committed suicide less than a week ago), seeing (and hearing) terrifying hallucinations of a giant Doberman pinscher eating his father's face, creakings and bangings and footsteps and doors opening by themselves and so on. Are these real or are these just the creations of his demented mind? The uncertainty about what's happening is supposed to be the element that gives the audience the thrills and chills in the movie.
To me, this is both just a plain copout and a perfect example of terrible writing. It's barely a half step above a story that ends with "and then he woke up and it was all a dream". Great writing, if you're twelve.
This trope allows the story to throw any old slop at the viewer without any justification, explanation or appropriate storytelling craftsmanship. If it's all in his mind and his mind is free to make up whatever it wants, any old crap is fair game. *Yawn* This old saw has been used in innumerable other movies in the very same way and for the very same reasons: cheap and easy, no thought required, five scares for a dollar. It was barely legitimate the first time it was used seventy years ago. Today it should probably be illegal. The last movie I reviewed with the very same premise, for all practical purposes, was STILL/BORN. Basically, it's as common as dirt.
Furthermore, nothing about the situational set up for the story makes sense at all, even if you try to spackle it over with 50 pounds of "willing suspension of disbelief". No patient is going to ever be released from any institution while actively hallucinating under any sort of stress; no patient is going to be released after twenty years in an institution into extreme isolation with no on-site supervision or transitional assistance; no patient is released into isolation with dual monitoring with heavy penalties for failing a monitoring regimen but for ONLY THIRTY DAYS and then be completely scot-free thereafter. And it just goes on and on and on.
I'm pretty good at squinting up my eyes and pretending through a lot of balderdash when it comes to movie entertainment, but somewhere out there is a limit and DELIRIUM goes well past it.
Garbage writing simply cannot be overcome with high production values. Even really high production values.
I felt especially bad for the protagonist because he turned in a first-rate acting job and managed to portray a very empathetic and likable character. It's a real shame it was wasted on such a fifth rate story.
As there are already many reviews at the time of this writing, I will leave the positive comments to others (probably coming from those who haven't lived long enough to have seen the same plot points a dozen times by now in other films as I have...) and simply focus on the aspects that kept me from liking it.
The vast majority of the tension and creepiness DELIRIUM manages to achieve relies all but exclusively on the vehicle of the protagonist being apparently unable to distinguish between hallucinations and reality. Even on his meds, the protagonist sees horrific visions that he has to vocally convince himself aren't really there. So here he is, rattling around in a giant, opulent mansion (in which his father committed suicide less than a week ago), seeing (and hearing) terrifying hallucinations of a giant Doberman pinscher eating his father's face, creakings and bangings and footsteps and doors opening by themselves and so on. Are these real or are these just the creations of his demented mind? The uncertainty about what's happening is supposed to be the element that gives the audience the thrills and chills in the movie.
To me, this is both just a plain copout and a perfect example of terrible writing. It's barely a half step above a story that ends with "and then he woke up and it was all a dream". Great writing, if you're twelve.
This trope allows the story to throw any old slop at the viewer without any justification, explanation or appropriate storytelling craftsmanship. If it's all in his mind and his mind is free to make up whatever it wants, any old crap is fair game. *Yawn* This old saw has been used in innumerable other movies in the very same way and for the very same reasons: cheap and easy, no thought required, five scares for a dollar. It was barely legitimate the first time it was used seventy years ago. Today it should probably be illegal. The last movie I reviewed with the very same premise, for all practical purposes, was STILL/BORN. Basically, it's as common as dirt.
Furthermore, nothing about the situational set up for the story makes sense at all, even if you try to spackle it over with 50 pounds of "willing suspension of disbelief". No patient is going to ever be released from any institution while actively hallucinating under any sort of stress; no patient is going to be released after twenty years in an institution into extreme isolation with no on-site supervision or transitional assistance; no patient is released into isolation with dual monitoring with heavy penalties for failing a monitoring regimen but for ONLY THIRTY DAYS and then be completely scot-free thereafter. And it just goes on and on and on.
I'm pretty good at squinting up my eyes and pretending through a lot of balderdash when it comes to movie entertainment, but somewhere out there is a limit and DELIRIUM goes well past it.
Garbage writing simply cannot be overcome with high production values. Even really high production values.
I felt especially bad for the protagonist because he turned in a first-rate acting job and managed to portray a very empathetic and likable character. It's a real shame it was wasted on such a fifth rate story.