ON THE INSIDE

US, 2011, 95 minutes, Colour.
Nick Stahl, Dash Mihok, Olivia Wilde, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Shohreh Aghdascloo.
Directed by D.W. Brown.

On the Inside is a drama that is better than might have been expected. It opens with an irrational revenge murder by a young student played by Nick Stahl. It is a case of mistaken identity. He is sent to an institution for the criminally insane. While there he encounters an odd prisoner played by Pruitt Taylor Vince, as well as a convicted murderer, played by Dash Mihok.

The film has surrealist touches in its presentation of the murder as well as life inside the jail. There is an encounter between the young man and a bipolar woman prisoner. She is played by Olivia Wilde.

As the film develops, with psychological meetings (Shohreh Aghdaschloo playing the psychiatrist) as well a sympathetic matron in the women’s prison, the opportunity arises for the young man and woman to meet. However, there is a melodramatic crisis as the Dash Mihok character wants to escape, brutally rapes the matron, attacks the others with a knife. It is the opportunity for the young man to redeem himself (having been visited by the father of the victim and trying to offer him some kind of repentance). The film has something of a downbeat ending – but in harmony with the general thrust of the film, the exploration of erratic anger, crime, punishment, reparation.

1. An interesting crime film, prison film, psychological drama, rehabilitation? With the touches of melodrama?

2. The opening, the suburbs, the murder in the garage – and its being reprised throughout the film? The visuals of the prison, details of cells, rooms, life in the prison, arts and rehabilitation? The musical score?

3. The title, jail, American policy, crime and punishment, justice? The staff at the prison, the guards, the treatment, the psychologists, the officer and his art projects? The life of the criminally insane?

4. The structure of the film: the crime, the judge, Allen entering prison, his character, in the holding area, the special areas, treatment, the minimum security, visits, the father of the victim? The flashbacks to the murder, the desperation of the victim? The build-up to the final melodrama?

5. The crime, Allen and his girlfriend, the rape, his motivation, anger, not hesitating, his brutality?

6. The flashbacks, his mother, the rivalry with his brother, his brother on the wall, the push? The mother, the photo? How much influence on Allen’s subsequent behaviour?

7. The sentence, the routine entry, the familiar aspects of prisoners and photographs, search...?

8. His meeting with Ben Marshall? On the line? Talking, Marshall’s eccentricities? Not a friend? The revelation about his life, his various psychological states?

9. Maximum security, the routines, the cells, the meals, the showers etc?

10. The therapy group, Doctor Lofton and her videoing the interviews with her patients? Marshall and the others?

11. Carl, his story, the killing of his father, his hands? The issue of privileges?

12. The women’s prison, Mia, her depression, bipolar? With the group, coming to the men’s area, the fears? Meeting the men? Talking, the effect on Allen?

13. Allen, his character in prison, quiet, his sense of guilt, his sense of responsibility?

14. Carl his assertiveness, the clashes with Allen, Ben and his going into trancelike states? The artwork? Carl and his wanting Allen to help him? Drawing?

15. The permissions, the discussions, with the women, rehabilitation?

16. The art classes, the officer in charge, his being away, return, talking to the other members of the staff, the sculptures and the drawings?

17. The visit, Mia and Allen, the effect on each?

18. Carl, his escape, with Ben Marshall, the murder of the guard, the raping of the matron? Locking Allen and Mia into the room? Ben?

19. The escape, their not killing Carl? The guard, his gun, the authorities and their wariness, the nervousness of the guard, his firing, shooting Allen?

20. Allen, his death, a means of atonement?

21. The treatment of responsibility, acknowledgment of guilt, atonement – and the significance of the scene where the victim’s father visited Allen and Allen’s response?