DELIRIUM

US, 2018, 96 minutes, Colour.
Topher Grace, Patricia Clarkson, Genesis Rodriguez, Callan Mulvey, Robin Thomas.
Directed by Dennis Iliadis.

As we watch this drama and thriller about mental conditions, we wonder how much is real, how much imagined, how much is actual delirium.

Topher Grace plays a man returning home, to a mansion owned by his father who has just suicided, from a mental institution. He has an ankle brace, is confined to the house, has a parole officer played by Patricia Clarkson, tough but not particularly sympathetic to her charge.

The man is haunted by noises in the house, rings for groceries to be delivered and makes friends with the young woman, Genesis Rodriguez. The screenplay gradually fills in the background, the man and his older brother and murders of young women, the brother going to jail. Then he reappears.

The film has moments of realism but, then there are the mysterious sounds, the burnt face of the brother, his appearances and disappearances, the visits of the parole officer, moments of violence.

So, this is a dramatisation of delirium, dealing with the past, possibility of rehabilitation, and the four of questions always in the audience’s mind, how much is real, how much is happening in the man’s head, and is he schizophrenic, creating the other characters but acting out his own experiences as well as the violent experience of his brother.

The ending of the film offers no definitive answer.

1. The title? Indications? Madness, mental health, hallucinations?

2. The institution, release? The mansion, exteriors, the interiors, the range of rooms, décor, the basement? The tunnels, rooms, safes? The musical score?

3. Tom’s story? The screenplay filling in the background, the two brothers, the mother and her devotion and her disappearance, the father and his demands, the home video films, his political career, his suicide? The two boys, the girl, Alex and his killing the girl, Tom watching? The later murder? Alex in prison? Tom institutionalised?

4. The issue of reality and unreality? How much of the story was fact? How little? Tom in the institution, his being released, Brody and her supervision, his parole situation, the ankle signal? Not allowed outside the house? Answering the phone and his being photographed? The risks of the police coming?

5. How much of the events were in Tom’s mind? The visuals suggesting reality, the presence of Alex, the visits by Brody, her harshness, the sexual approach, her being killed? Lynn, bringing the groceries, her attraction, revisits, coming inside, Tom sharing with her? The sinister presence, the sounds, his searching the house, the secret passage, with the eyeholes? Alex’s arrival, escape from prison, Brody saying that he had been burnt in a prison fire? His burnt face? The discussions, the taunts, the attack on Lynn, the repartee rap repetition of the murder of the girl and Tom’s observing?

6. Alex, presence, sense of menace, memories of his father, of the killings, his power over Tom, the continued menace in the house? Appearing and disappearing? His taking Lynn, the brutality, the taunts? His wanting the money, Tom going to the basement, then as hostage, the time limit, opening the safe? The bullets, the water from the swimming pool?

7. Tom, settling in, his room, unpacking, watching the home movies from the past, the portrait of his father? Answering the phone, not going outside, searching the house, the sounds? Interaction with Brody?

8. The buildup to the climax, the presence of the swimming pool, Tom swimming, the cover almost killing him? And the water into the basement?

9. The reappearance of his mother, imprisoned, Alex and his taunts, her attacking Alex, trying to save Tom? Her death?

10. The end, an open door, Tom still in the institution or having a new life?