On the Inside - La prigione dei folli

mrc303 nailed it..

Olivia Wilde's amazing performance.. along with Nick and the rest.

The acting was superb.. writing OK.. and overall very well done.

Simple fact is the actor(s) did as was needed and then some.

A sadly under rated winner IMHO.

How on earth this is only a 4.9 is astounding. Maybe the "Napoleon" fans need to learn what real acting is.

Oh and Min lines etc rules... phooey (review editor can remove this line but pls let the superiors know that it's not an effective rule to prevent spam. etc etc)

Hmm...not sure about this one.

The film was very well written, it was engaging, the actors were impressive and there was genuine emotional involvement.

But after watching it, instead of thinking "what a good film", all I could think was "what was the point of that?" And I'm not even someone who thinks films have to have deep and meaningful things to say but even Transformers has a point (save the world etc.) There is literally no reason for this film unless I missed something. Is there a message about being good? about rehabilitation? loneliness? what?! I don't know and I don't think I can recommend people watch a film that is so pointless.

I would give the film a 5 for "overall" enjoyment and at least 7 for the overall great execution of the film so I will rate it a 6.

Watch it if you are a fan of any of the actors because you won't be bored but don't be surprised when you feel strangely disappointed after watching.

Is it an epic masterpiece? No. Is it well and appropriately written? Yes. Is it well acted? Absolutely.

OK, some of the back-story is left a little lacking in flashbacks that are extremely short and for the most part lacking in development. But the present is well thought out, follows a natural character progression, and there aren't any unnecessary character trait flips to create artificial drama. The ending is appropriate for the progression of the story. Even the audio is perfectly developed.

Basically, this hits the mark on every mark except special effects (which would feel completely tacked on and unnecessary anyway). I don't get why there are so many poor reviews for something very solid!

Allen Meneric (Nick Stahl) is committed to a psychiatric institution after killing the wrong man for raping his girlfriend. There he deal with violent patients (Dash Mihok and Pruitt Taylor Vince). Once he is allowed into the minimum security section, he meets a beautiful bipolar female inmate Mia (Olivia Wilde). The institution is loose with security, and Dr. Lofton (Shohreh Aghdashloo) in charge refuses to address. Inevitably things go wrong.

The story meanders quite a bit. It takes a few detours into the killing, his past while we wait for the action to start. The pace is rather slow and the action doesn't start till the end. Nick Stahl doesn't have enough emotional drama. If this was a character study, they needed to get him to overcome emotional hurdles.

A decent but troubled young man (Nick Stahl) is sent to a psychiatric institution for the criminally insane and soon finds himself in a fight for his life battling ghosts inside his head and very real enemies all around him.

This film has received generally low ratings and reviews, and I find that unfortunate. I saw one review saying this film had no point. I will not even address that. I did find it extremely odd that an intelligent young man was put in a psychiatric ward when he is clearly a rational person. What he did was heinous, but completely understandable and not in any way due to mental illness. But, oh well.

That issue aside, the acting is great (without the need for "big names"), the story is fantastic (not your typical prison story), the directing is more than adequate. The actor who plays Ben really steals the show. I am sad to see that Olivia Wilde does little more than serve as the romantic interest. Her mental issues could be a good story of their own, but are more or less completely ignored.

Great film? Probably not. But better than average and worth seeing.