Since the 'friends' era (someone was bound to bring it up), Perry's films have always shared the typical romance/comedy element, although I must nuance by saying the emphasis tended to differ, but now it seems that Matt has chosen a different path, trying to prove himself as a serious actor in drama's, although he hasn't fully abjured comedy (not that he should, as long as it remains tasteful). The recent 'The Ron Clark Story' proved to be a big hit in the rose and 'Numb' was the next logical step, providing him with a more challenging and diverse role even namely a screenwriter having to deal with a peculiar form of depression; 'depersonalization'.
Judging the authenticity of his performance is very hard, seeing that I, like most people, have never heard of the condition in question. I do believe most reviews coming from people suffering from it or having suffered from it in the past were predominantly positive. Perry's natural charm and his impression of being clumsy have to be suppressed, and having dealt with depression in real life the actor can dig into his own experience to come up with a real life character, and he does so with furore, wisely underplaying and steering away from his typical comedy style, meanwhile the film still has a lot of off beat comedy moments to lighten the material at hand a bit, certainly a welcome comical relief.
The low-key tone of the film might make it difficult for some people to access, but I would still recommend it to most people.
7.7/10
