SHRINK

US, 2009, 100 minutes, Colour.
Kevin Spacey, Keke Palmer, Mark Webber, Saffron Burrows, Jack Houston, Pell James, Jessie Plemmons, Robin Williams.
Directed by Jonah Pate.

Sounds promising. Kevin Spacey as a Los Angeles psychiatrist whose wife has killed himself and, while he is still practising, has opted out of ordinary life and taken refuge in drugs. However, it is not quite as engrossing as it might be. Perhaps it is the patchwork nature of the plot, with the focus on the shrink and then the focus on the stories of some of his clients. Reaching for an adjective to describe this, one might call it somewhat 'Altmanesque'.

Where the film is a little different is in the client list. They are not just from Los Angeles. They are from Hollywood or aspire to success in Hollywood. This gives the film a rather more wry tone than usual. There is the philandering film director who wants permission to philander (an uncredited Robin Williams). There is the actress and mother who is no longer the glamorous star (Saffron Burrows). There is the aspiring student (Keke Palmer) and the young man who befriends her but wants to write a script and 'borrows' her life (Mark Webber) and there is the obnoxious producer (Dallas Roberts). The shrink also has his personal dealer named Jesus (Jesse Plemons).

Perhaps that is the trouble. The characters are not all that interesting which means that the shrink's work is not so interesting either.

There are glimmers of hope for some of the characters at the end but this is one of those 'might be interesting if you happen to catch it' films.

1.Audience response to psychiatrists? The title of Shrink and its tone?

2.Los Angeles shrinks, Hollywood, types, problems, clients, self-indulgent, solutions?

3.The Los Angeles settings, offices and homes, studios and sets, streets? Realism? Musical score?

4.The style, the focus on Henry Carter and his clients, the jigsaw of the various characters, the dramatic effect – or diminishing it by such variation?

5.Henry Carter, Kevin Spacey’s screen presence, age and experience, career, affluent, the death of his wife, her suicide, the effect on him, drugs and opting out, his contact with his dealer? His practice, coping or not? The group of clients gathering and trying to persuade him to go on therapy? His negative reaction? The meetings with Kate, the human touch? Going into the depths? Character study?

6.The range of clients and types? Audience interest in them, their lives and problems, sympathy or not?

7.The drug supplier, his name Jesus? Type, the meetings, the attacks on him?

8.Robin Williams Jack, the Hollywood director, his womanising, wanting Henry’s permission to philander?

9.Kate, star in her earlier days, her present, the odd husband, her child, the fans and their comments, her needing help? The friendship with Henry?

10.Gemma and her being at school, her family, away from school, her ambitions? The encounter with Jeremy, the friendship, her telling her story to him? His writing the screenplay, her anger, reading it, changing?

11.Paul, the caricature of the producer, the type, self-centred, meetings, his films, budgets? Working with Daisy, his treatment, firing and promoting her?

12.Daisy, her ambitions, her work, encouraging Jeremy?

13.Seamus and his eccentricity, manner, his films and filming, treatment?

14.Jeremy, the friendship with Henry, his ambitions to be a writer, the encounters with Paul, the rejection of his screenplay, the friendship with Gemma, using her, getting the file from Henry, writing his screenplay, Gemma’s reaction?

15.A portrait of a shrink and his clients – to what purpose?