Unsane - Movie Review

Unsafe appeared to be a typical suspense/thriller where the audience is left to decide whether a mental patient is crazy or not. It appeared to have a specific perspective that held some promise alond with a decent premise, so my wife and I used our Moviepass to check it out.

Sawyer Valentini (Claire Foy) appears to be starting a new life in a new city. She isn't particularly warm to her co-workers and her boss is a bit sleazy. She appears to be a bit of a loner, as evidenced by her odd phone call home to her mother. We begin to realize something isn't quite right when we witness her slightly awkward interview with a psychiatrist. When Sawyer is tricked into inadvertently committing herself for 24-hour treatment, her emotional state declines rapidly. As she lashes out, she justifies a longer involuntary commitment.

Sawyer begins to open up about her relocation to a fellow patient, Nate (Jay Pharoah). She shares with Nate the source of her paranoia, having been a victim of stalking in Boston. This culminates in the arrival of her stalker, David Strine (Joshua Leonard) as an orderly at the facility. We are left wondering whether a stalker would go to such lengths to gain access to the rapidly deteriorating Sawyer. We watch as her worst fears play out, allowing the truth of the situation to unfold as the story escalates.

There is not much new to be found in Unsane. It is a combination of formulaic suspense and gimmicky cinematography. The film is given a stalker-ish flavor through the use of voyeuristic camera angles. This is accomplished, largely, through the use of an iPhone to film the entire movie. It is a cute premise, but it is also imperfect. The film had an odd tension, which was nice, but the camera left a lot to be desired with the darker scenes. It was okay as a gimmick, but it was also distracting and degraded some of the quality of the film.

The story itself was milquetoast. It was a typical "is the mental patient really crazy?" type of film. The only real twist was the addition of a stalker back-story and an iPhone to create a stalker-like quality to the film. It's cute, but got old quick. And there wasn't really enough to the story itself to hold up. In fact, the story stretched the bounds of what one might readily accept as plausible. The film built the tension nicely, but it was a bit slow at times. It was also fairly predictable. The pacing picked up near the end, but still felt slow overall. The film also seemed to want to be an indictment on the mental health system, but really failed to deliver any coherent message on that point. It was more a vehicle for delivering the broader story.

The acting was a mixed bag. I liked Foy in the lead role. She had an edginess that gave her character dimension. I did not like Leonard. At all. His performance often felt like I was watching community theater. Maybe he didn't translate well to the iPhone format. But I was not impressed. He appears to have a decent body of work under his belt, but I didn't recognize or care for him. Juno Temple has a small role, as does Matt Damon (more of a cameo). Damon, in his brief appearance, did a nice rapid-fire delivery of his lines. His brief scene was just backstory, but added some nice depth. The casting could have been better. Although I am not sure how much that would have helped an otherwise hackneyed story.

The MPAA gave Unsane an R rating. The rating stems primarily from the violence, which is a bit bloody in one scene. The violence is limited, but brutal at times. There are sexual references and language as well. A couple of murders are depicted, either directly or indirectly. There is also a torture scene that is limited but effective in conveying the message. Overall, the rating seems justified. Teenagers or above should be fine with this film. The film has a one hour, 37 minute run time, but felt a bit longer due to sluggish pacing.

I wasn't expecting a lot out of Unsafe. My favorite genres are science-fiction and suspense, but I know that both genres are more often done poorly than done well. Sometimes you have to suffer through the bad ones to find the gems. Unsafe wasn't necessarily bad, but it had plenty of room for improvement. I enjoyed it. It was slow at times, predictable and had some less than stellar performances. But the concept was intriguing, although distracting. I liked it enough to give it a mild recommendation. Wait for it streaming (free). 6.5/10.