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"Shrink" takes obvious swipes at Hollywood
Reuters - 2 hours 21 minutes ago
By Kirk Honeycutt
PARK CITY, Utah loaded with severely damaged, drug-addled patients.
Director Jonas Pate goes for d) all of the above.
Actually, "Shrink" does even better than that. Since Kevin Spacey's Dr. Henry Carter is the "shrink to the stars," you get all those easy potshots at nasty, insecure Hollywood types. Watching this movie is like reading a supermarket tabloid -- where, in fact, one character sees an apparently accurate report of her deteriorating marriage.
There is always room in the market for another slanted take on the mental health profession and film industry. You do wish Pate and writer Thomas Moffett had gone for more wit given the outlandishness of the melodrama. It would be more fun to laugh at this than take it seriously.
Spacey could recite the Park City phone directory and you'd give him your rapt attention. So it is fun to watch his ruined shrink -- a serious pothead with no concern for his shambling appearance or log-cabin beard -- stumble through each day with a caseload of crazies.
First up there's a germophobic, anal-retentive, obsessive-compulsive high-powered talent agent played by Dallas Roberts. He is designed to remind you of so many top agents it isn't funny.
Then there's Saffron Burrows' "aging" actress, looking better than ever but supposedly suffering from limited roles because she goes to a doctor, not a pediatrician. Her marriage has been a wreck ever since her husband discovered his "narcissistic" side.
Mark Webber's screenwriter-cum-gardener/car valet can't get anyone to read his script other than Roberts' long-suffering, pregnant assistant
Robin Williams' character drops by to treat his sex addiction, but Carter thinks he's really an alcoholic.
The shrink's father , on his troubled son. Since her mother and his son's wife both committed suicide, he hopes they might cure each other. This plot device is quite obvious, yet the writer forces Spacey to point it out.
The circle of these loonies draws in others, such as a drugged-out film director cheerfully sleeping her way to the top.
The film relies on all sorts of coincidental meetings and accidents for its narrative drive. To wit: The screenwriter steals the schoolgirl's chart from the shrink, garners enough material for a brilliant script he writes in a couple of days, gives it to the agent's assistant , who hands it to the agent, who then drops it on the sidewalk where the schoolgirl picks it up and learns of her betrayal. Oh, yes, and a few scenes later the project heads into production with the assistant as its producer.
There really was a much better comedy here than melodrama.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
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Actor Kevin Spacey poses for a portrait while promoting the film "Shrink" during the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah January 22, 2009. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
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