10 Days in a Madhouse

I'm not really sure how to rate this film, but feel compelled to write a review, for no other reason than to warn people what they are about to see. The plot is interesting, but the movie feels like a high-school play. While it is a very important and amazing story that needed to be told, the production is abysmal. Only a 12 million dollar budget? OK, but, better acting alone would've made all the difference. The 10 star ratings are misleading; either fake, or written by Lifetime Movie lovers. And what was with the Kelly LeBrock cameo?? Weird. (and bad) I agree with another reviewer who suggested you read the book. I plan to do that, as soon as I get the imagery from this rubbish out of my head.

I've read the reviews written before writing my own, and I'm astonished by the low ratings and the reasons for that.

I didn't know the story, didn't know (anything about) Nellie Bly. But the movie showed all it had to.

The movie might not be of the best quality, you might expect more given all the digital techniques these days. But I kind of appreciate it, because it accentuates the time these things actually did happen.

I've seen reviews which said that Christopher Lambert seemed to be there mostly to give the movie 1 known actor, and that Caroline Barry did not such a great job at playing faking a mental illness. I don't agree on both statements.

Lambert hadn't the main role, he simply had the role of the main physician. He showed a man who, I think honestly, tried to figure out how to help his patients, but got terribly confused about what's right and wrong in how to realize that. Which has been sort of "good practice" for a pretty long time in medicine...

Barry played the main role, a woman who acts being mentally ill, in a time people hardly understood what mentally ill meant. Today's psychiatrist en psychologist would definitely not fall for the show she put on. We won't either. But back than? Don't forget, it's incredibly hard to fake a mental illness with our current knowledge, back than she could very well succeed with what Barry showed us on screen. Mainly because that was what a lot of men those days would expect from a mentally ill woman.

It is precisely that, what makes this movie a very catchy story that won't let go of you until the end. As a viewer I felt the unease, the emotions, the pressure, like it was choking me.

Wonderful storyline, but woefully underwhelming from an acting and screenplay/dialogue standpoint. Watching the "actors" converse in this movie was painful at times and reminds one of a film school project more than a serious picture. I've always trusted IMDb to be a good judge of films to watch. My personal experience has been that movies rated 6 or higher are typically very good movies so long as the content is to your tastes. That has changed for me over the past year or so though. I will take future IMDb ratings with a grain of salt.

Having never written a review of a movie on IMDb before I was motivated due to two rather unusual ones from profiles only ever reviewing this movie. . . . .and giving a bad review. So, while it does betray its roots as a low budget movie the story was indeed pretty good. Definitely worth watching through to the end as the topic will certainly make you question what you believe about institutions for mental health.

Much of the acting was so sub-par it's astounding this ever made it to post-production. Christopher Lambert, the only actor of note in the film, is actually among the worst offenders; quite an achievement in this lot. Staggering terrible.