Conspiracies. Conspiracies. Conspiracies. Today’s film operates within the marketing plan that dictates: “As long as there’s paranoia, there’s an audience.” Playing upon one of our darkest human fears -the incarcerated innocent- Unsane puts us in the lock-up-ward of a mental hospital presenting horror-like symptoms while challenging boundaries, logic, and grammar.
Sawyer Valentini (Claire Foy) has a job she “loves.” It’s possible she also “loves” her mother (Amy Irving), her boss, her life, and wearing a sour expression constantly suggesting the family dog has just done his business on the living room rug, but I wouldn’t bet on any of it. Do all of her ills stem from her stalker (Joshua Leonard) or is she naturally off-putting? It’s much more challenging than it ought to be to sympathize with Sawyer, if that is in fact her real name. And while we’re busy deciding whether Sawyer is our kind of Finn, she makes a serious error: while taking a mental health lunch hour of therapy at a remote clinic, Sawyer tells the truth about her emotional state and gets herself locked up for observation.
Being held against your will is one of the great fears of most humans, including myself, so again, it would be easy to sympathize with Sawyer were she not such a jerk about it. Dude! Call your mom, call your lawyer, then chill. Stop antagonizing the fellow in-mates. If you don’t belong there, stop acting like you do. Oh, is that the point of this film? That there’s a fine line between perceived insanity and sanity? Is that the secret behind the movie’s curiously misspelled title. Oh, did I say “Curiously?” I meant “stupidly.” Speaking of stupidly, Sawyer continues to make the wrong moves. Lemme tell ya, punching an orderly is not getting you out of here any faster.
Exacerbating matters is that quite suddenly her stalker has taken up a position on staff. You’re kidding, right? This is just her imagination, right? Is she going crazy or what? That’s the only possible explanation because I’ve been watching this movie for almost an hour and let me tell you how much of it doesn’t make sense: 100%. How could she not see “voluntary” confinement was in the offing? Why would she make her phone call to the police instead of a friend? How easy is it to lock up people for “observation” purposes? This is a good one – the clinic is in cahoots to sequester as many possible inmates as it can get to squeeze insurance companies for money. And then, apparently, the hospital’s version of employee checks is, “You seem like a nice young man; here’s a key to the opiates.”
Unsane is obviously intended to ignite conspiracy theorist paranoia – you get to imagine all sorts of government corruption: skimming, patient abuse, patient-profiteering, lack-of-vetting, and lack-of-oversight all aimed at specifically making your life worse; “deep state” idiots must be lovin’ this thing. OK, gang, if you can replace your tin foil hats with thinking caps for a moment, please explain to me the insurance company that will gladly pay any claim for extended observation. Yeah, that describes every insurance company I know. “Here, have some money … what’s that you say, ‘Sawyer -who’s never had a history of mental illness- needs to be kept at your institution longer?’ No, we don’t need proof. Here’s a check to cover all of it.” Sure, that happens all the time.
I could guess that Unsane might appeal to the gaslight experienced. At its best, this film straddles that line between reality and observed reality. OTOH, any gaslight sympathizers able to stomach watching the routine happening to somebody else might be quick to point out that Sawyer is a serious
pain-in-the-ass. Part of gaslighting involves compliance. You can’t get a populace to buy repeated lies unless they’re at least partially willing. [This is why Trump and Fox News are so dangerous.]
Given the lack of logic, Unsane feels like a plot that exists just to push buttons, like a well-produced offering from the Oxygen Network. Entertaining or not, Unsane preys upon the worst within ourselves. The message is clear: If you wish to be safe, don’t live alone, don’t walk alone, don’t shop alone, don’t play alone, don’t work alone, don’t eat alone, don’t sleep alone. Heck, don’t sleep, ever. Value you freedom? Then invest in your lack of privacy. Unsane has no tolerance for introversion. Hence, I look at this picture and wonder if the cure isn’t worse than the disease. If you put so little value on independence, is life in a mental ward really worse than the alternative?
A young woman with entrepreneurial stalker
Finds consequence from being a truth talker
Confined to crazy sect
With plot a bit suspect
Luckily, I’ve installed my crock blocker
Rated R, 98 Minutes
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Writer: Jonathan Bernstein, James Greer
Genre: Doctor visit from Hell
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Conspiracy theorists
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Introverts
