Waking Madison

It's a must see movie, i found it to be intense and all the actors where amazing, i bought the movie and have watched it like a thousand times. Katherine Brooks is an amazing writer and director. When i first saw the movie i had to really had to pay attention to understand what this your girl was going though and i do have to say people that have these multipul disorders it has to be hard for them not to live like that. i thought that Sarah Roemer, Elisabth Shue and Erin Kelly were amazing how they kept the roles connected to one another, i'm sure thats not an easy thing to do but having a director like Katherine Brooks to help them out made it a little easier with there roles.

Waking Madison (2010)

The movie world is filled with talents coming from nowhere and making a splash. Director Katherine Brooks is not one of them. Her resume of MTV compilations and other professional jobs doesn't even quite prepare you for the badly worked clichés, uninspired acting, and amateurish writing here.

The reason it comes to mind here (and not all the other mediocre movies out there) is that Brooks is both director and writer here, as if she was really sure of herself.

The idea isn't bad in itself. A young woman (played by Sarah Roemer) faces her multiple personality disorders in a period of high drama crisis. And the movie manifests this for the viewer in an unexpected way. When this "trick" first becomes clear (and I'll give no hints here) it's fascinating, the one minute of actual fascination you can expect. When the trick gets played a second time it's pure sensationalism, or just lack of inspiration.

Another problem is Elizabeth Shue's performance as the leading psychologist, which at first I blamed on her. She's bland and unconvincing, even after the final twist when you might reevaluate what her purpose was all along. Now I lay some blame at the director's feet.

There are some nice grungy set designs, the music plays well into the mood, the photography is decent, the layering of video within the larger photography is interesting, and so on. I mean, it has the bones of a decent movie. It reminds you that writing comes first (the idea, and the dialog) and then acting and directing (hand in hand) are critical.

Who is this Sarah Roemer? A really promising actress with a terrible agent. The movies she has been in are rotten rotten rotten. So it's hard to see the energy she keeps just under the surface throughout. Likewise for two other secondary young women who play with intensity worthy of a spooky movie about mental disturbances: Imogen Poots (who was in the interesting "Solitary Man" with Michael Douglas) and Taryn Manning (who seems to have Roemer's same agent, or the same kind of agent).

So? What to do? Skip this one. There are many better low budget or low quality psycho flicks with better edges and surprises.

I feel bad that the average rating for this movie is less than half because I believe there were less than 20 reviews, and a couple of people who praised it gave it no rating. I'll try to bring it up with this review.

Others have basically given the narrative so I'll skip that. I'll mention that Shue, Roemer, and the supporting cast gave good, if not very good performances. Some characterizations were stereotypical of mental illness, and I might question using the multiple personality theme to get across the idea of someone's struggle with comparative general mental illness that might be slightly hackneyed and misplaced. (but essential to the plot).

That being said, I think Brooks did a tour de force job with conveying the inner workings of mental illness. Everything in the movie felt and breathed it. She was spot on with the isolation, confusion, and frustration. She showed what mental illness can do to a person leaving out only some details and development that wouldn't have necessarily extended meaning to the narrative, and would have made it painfully long.

This movie is a must see for anyone interested in knowing what mental illness is like from within, and hopefully providing hope to those who suffer from this debilitating disease. I also hope that more people come to understand the reality of how misunderstood and stigmatized mental illness can be, and as a result that more people are helped.

I rate this movie a solid 7 for the story/acting, and a 9 for direction/production value, averaging 8 overall.

When I first heard about Waking Madison, I was skeptical. I knew it was related to mental illness and what is or isn't considered reality. I expected a really "out there" film, one that I would struggle to understand. What ended up being my reality was quite a surprise. As someone that works in the mental health field with people dealing with trauma, I was captivated by the characters and the story line. What I thought was taking place, ended up being a twist which to me makes a film great. This is the writer and producer's story. It is a story of torment as the young woman searches for help. It is a story of resilience and hope. I believe there are parts that live inside of each of us that can be destructive, but there are parts that can strengthen us as well. I would recommend that anyone that sees Waking Madison watch the entire film to see the outcome that is unexpected. The actors were phenomenal as well as the location and art. As I believe, also, there is beauty in the darkness. Out of the darkness in this story, comes the light of life.

i got mixed up at some point in the movie but when i understood i though it was awesome it needs a good brain to create that kind of movie and i just love it when i get lost in a movie and find my way back in that means it really captured my attention...it is different from :Loving Annabelle but thats the point i think...thriller suspenses and horror are my favorite kind so i did enjoy watching this movie. in my opinion there is a sad side about the story of the girl and what she has been trough but its a lesson that we never know what a person is going trough in its personal life so we should always be kind..i hope there will be more movie like this in the future.Katherine Brooks is an awesome filmmaker and director i hope she will create many more movies like this one.