By Emilio Frenk.
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Cast: Claire Foy, Joshua Leonard, Jay Pharoah, Juno Temple, Aimee Mullins, Polly McKie, Zach Cherry, Amy Irving, Sarah Stiles, Raúl Castillo, Mike Mihm and Matt Damon.
Rating: Very Good.
Academy Award Winner Steven Soderbergh brings “Unsane”, a thriller with a very good story with interesting results.
The movie centers in Sawyer Valentini (Claire Foy) a businesswoman who just recently started a job in a new city in order to escape from David Strine (Joshua Leonard) a man who has been stalking her for quite some time.
One day Sawyer finds out in the internet about a group that provides counseling for women who have suffered from harassment. One day she visits the group in the hospital and she signs the documents as a requirement of the facility after the session she has with the councelor.
The problem grows when Sawyer doesn´t realize that the papers she just signed force her to spend 24 Hours in the institution against her will.
A furious Sawyer doesn´t have a choice but to spend a day in the hospital. For makes things worse she has an encounter with David in the hospital; of course no one believes her and begins to have hallucinations.
Now Sawyer most figure out a way of getting out of the mental institution before she looses her mind for real.
Like I mentioned before “Unsane” is a film that has an interesting theme and in terms of story the movie does deliver.
The screenplay written by Jonathan Bernstein and James Greer was very well crafted and touched a theme that has been mentioned in film but here it was taken from a different angle and works.
The performance by Claire Foy is fantastic. She portrays Sawyer Valentini with so much realism and you feel that she has a major conflict and she is a woman who has suffered so much by the hands of a stalker.
Foy is one of the most talented young actresses right now and she has proven it again in “Unsane”.
Joshua Leonard´s performance is convincing as well. He is terrifying as David and he portrays the kind of guy that you don´t want to be around with.
Steven Soderbergh´s directing in terms of his cast was really good. You can tell that he worked with his cast in delivering convincing performances.
The major problem that I had with “Unsane” was Soderbergh´s choice in shooting this film completely with the Iphone 7 Plus. I understand his approach and that he wanted something different but in the case of a filmmaker like Soderbergh I don´t buy that. I was surprise this film wasn´t shot in the Red Camera, which he normally uses in his films and decided this approach.
It was very obvious from the beginning that the film was shot in a Smartphone and you can tell this due to the quality of the image that was involved.
This approach on shooting with an Iphone I believe if it´s either from an independent filmmaker or for someone who is trying to do his debut film and doesn´t have to much budget.
The score by Thomas Newman it´s a very good one and brings very interesting elements on the table, specially in the scenes were the intensity grows, were he plays witht those elements and does it in a very smart way.
The ending of the film was completely unexpected and surprising I most say. To be completely honest it took me by surprise since I was expecting the typical ending where the main character has her life again. This was the opposite and it does work.
Despite of the cinematography, Soderbergh directed a very good film in terms of screenplay and his cast delivered in this film.
“Unsane” is a very well made thriller and this can be Soderbergh´s most interesting film visually speaking since he took a different approach but at the same time a risky one. I highly recommend this film, specially if you love the thriller genre.