Numb

i just saw this film at the Austin film festival. I had no idea what to expect and i was delighted with the results. Mathew Perry delivers a fantastic understated performance. I really wasn't a fan of his and when I heard he was in it, truthfully i wanted to see it less. But i've changes my tune completely, l'm a definite fan now, he sunk his teeth into this role and really let go of his usual bag of comedic tricks.

The writer/director knows what he is doing. He injected just enough, just just enough comedy into the movie to make the disturbing and hard to handle subject matter palatable. I really found the movie a delight and the the whole theatre was laughing in agreement with me. Go see it, its really something!

Hudson Milbank (Matthew Perry) is a depressed Hollywood screenwriter who can't feel anything. He bounces from one psychiatrist to another. His life takes an interesting turn when he meets the lovely Sara Harrison (Lynn Collins).

Director/writer Harris Goldberg doesn't have the creativity to make this movie quirky. I wasn't certain what it was trying to do for quite awhile. Then Lynn Collins gets into the movie and I figure this was a nice little rom-com. But then Lynn gets yanked out of the movie. It completely disrupted the flow. Mary Steenburgen provided some quirky funny moments in the last half, but it's too little. Lynn was sorely missed. A depressed Matthew Perry is just not compelling all by himself.

For some reason I ended up watching 3 movies about mental disorder this week. The first was "Helen" starring Ashley Judd which was very powerful but thoroughly depressing. The second was "The Bridge", a documentary showing people jumping to their deaths off the Golden Gate Bridge. Not as morbid as it sounds, but still heavy stuff. And the third was "Numb" which was totally refreshing.

Here we get Matthew Perry's unique brand of humour (charmingly cynical) but much more laid back than you'd expect from his Chandler role on Friends. Here he plays the part of a person who is mature & basically stable yet suddenly hit with an acute case of insanity. In that respect, there's almost a childlike quality to him as he seeks to discover what went wrong. I think that's what makes this so fun to watch, even though the prospect of losing one's mind is inherently depressing.

This is no madcap comedy with witty zingers & one-liners. It's more of a situational-laugh thing. Some of the gags are really subtle, like jokes set up without any punchline (which you must infer). A lot of the gags are based on crazy awkward situations. For example, a psychiatrist starts to lose it in a restaurant, talking in a controlled whisper one minute and then yelling at the busboy to "F OFF!" the next minute for filling her water glass. Lol, no punchline required.

I think this film found the perfect balance between comedy and drama. Too much comedy, and it mocks the subject. Not enough comedy and it gets depressing. "Numb" got it just right. It has both comedy as well as some insightful, dramatic moments.

If you are among the privileged few who have... shall we say... unusual brains (interpretation: total nutcase), or if you know someone who fits the description, you should watch this movie. It'll give you a greater appreciation for the people who have psychological problems as well as those who love them. And it'll do so by giving you some laughs and a smile on your face.

I saw this at the Austin Film Festival and thought it was one of the best romantic comedies I have seen in years--and from the most unlikely source material. Beautifully written with a light hand, it exploits extreme situations for humor but always goes beyond simple shock value and superficial, quirky tics. (This writer has had enough of movies like Superbad and Knocked Up, which wear audiences out with shock humor, and I didn't see the point of Napolean Dynamite, in which minimalist, oddball moments fail to accrete to a real story.) Numb is instead an eccentric, hilarious film with depth, heart and soul. The tone was spot on: though based on deeply painful autobiographical material, Numb is never maudlin or pathetic. And Matthew Perry is outstanding--prevented from being outlandishly Matthew Perry ("Zero," the director reportedly commanded him. "Nothing. You're numb."), it seemed he was forced to funnel his comic genius into tiny, brilliant moments. A gem of film.

I have been rooting around for sometime now for a movie that would speak to the inertia that has settled over me in various cycles during the last decade or so. This would be a movie that would address the issue of being a potentially gifted person, but who is stunned by the oppressiveness of modern life: frightening economy, unpredictable jobs, the no-rules relational chaos of post-modernism.

The last movie I saw that got to this was "Wonder Boys," about an insightful English professor who couldn't function because of being emotionally stunned. While it is flawed and at times, forcing itself too much on you, "Numb" is that great new movie that gets into the struggle for identity.

Matthew Perry does a convincing job as Hudson Milbank, a modern LA freelance writer, trying to find meaning and connection. The film cleverly dances in and out of his early life, showing his times with fittingly remote and narcissistic parents, especially a destructive mother who is played perfectly by Helen Shaver, a great Canadian actress who masterfully conjures cold, chipper, semi-ice-queen figures.

It also has a hysterical and realistically frightening bit about a highly credentialed psychiatrist, Dr. Cheryl Blaine, played ably by Mary Steenburgen, who has her own bout with borderline syndrome and sexaholic tendencies, which she can't seem to restrain from unleashing on Hudson, who seeks her help with his condition.

The funniest line of the movie comes when she chases him out of a restaurant in a predatory moment, asking him about his family. To which Hudson, in a mid-trot, grunts to Tom, his writer sidekick played by Kevin Pollack: "uh...run." You can't decide whether Dr. Blaine is funny or terrifying, maybe the scariest female character since Sharon Stone in "Basic Instinct."

There are so many familiar handles in this movie, I can't even remember them all. Besides the out-of-control, counter-transferring female therapist, let's see...there was

-- Spending most of your leisure life in bed being hooked on one brand of inanely topical TV, in this case, The Golf Channel. Many of us have our times escaping into with some kind of nerdy TV; mine is The Weather Channel, for my ex, it is The Fishing Channel, and an old roommate couldn't live without The Military Channel.

-- Trying an unending series of anti-depressants, thinking you will find one magic pill to fix you. Hudson becomes so much a regular at the HMO pharmacy, that we see the pharmacist playfully wishing him luck with his latest prescription.

-- Being up and out at 4 a.m., insisting this is the only time you really feel good about the world.

And there are many more moments I recognize in this movie that come from the benumbing, joyless periods that seem to settle in on us. without answers, at various times in the post-modern world.

What director Harris Goldberg does that is so helpful is he makes many of the trapped moments funny and he resists offering up a trite resolution. Hudson finds hope in certain things and soon abandons them, going on to his next illusory beacon. It is a waiting game until he finds the next bit of relief, kind of like real life.