Review of Pali Road

Pali Road (2015)
2/10
Bad
6 June 2022
I intended to go through all the reasons why this film is REALLY BAD, but that's been done well by other reviewers, so I'll just say a few things. This film is shapeless, lifeless, and largely incomprehensible. There are a lot of quick transitions between the two alternate lives that don't build toward anything. Michelle Chen has absolutely no screen luster whatever. This looks like some kind of vanity production or a Chinese-backed attempt to make money in the American market. Films like this depend on the impression that the main character looks crazy to the people around her because he or she is trying to make sense of an irrational universe; but Lily, the main character, really does make completely illogical decisions. You think that some nefarious plot to drive this woman crazy is going on because the Henry Ian Cusick character acts evil and ominous, but in fact that's just a red herring, even though there's absolutely no reason for him to act that way. Well, I could go on, but I'll finish up with two medical things that others may have missed: There is a scene where Lily is in a scanner, either CT or MRI, and one doctor says, "This should tell us what we need to know." That is completely wrong. There are all kinds of brain disorders in which the brain anatomy looks completely normal. Second, they talk about deep brain stimulation as a treatment. DBS has been tried only in severe schizophrenia, which Lily clearly does not have. DBS is used for the most part to treat people with movement disorders, like Parkinson's disease or essential tremor, not psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia. Conclusion: This limp rag of a film is strictly desperation time for insomniacs.
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