Best Books of 2013 / Holiday Gift Guide.Producers: Rob Merilees, Lindsay Macadam, Charlize Theron, A.J. Production companies: Broad Green Pictures, Foundation Features, Denver and Delilah FilmsĬast: Chloe Grace Moretz, Thomas Mann, Richard Armitage, Carrie-Anne Moss, Tyler Perry, Jenny Slateĭirector-screenwriter: Gerard Barrett, based on the memoir Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan Venue: Toronto International Film Festival (Special Presentations)
#Brain on fire movie#
Moretz brought such memorable intensity and preternatural poise to teen roles in movies like Kick-Ass, Let Me In and Hugo if this project was intended to test her ability to carry a dramatic movie solo as an adult, it’s a miss. The film’s chief selling point is a pinball-ricochet performance from Moretz that hits all the marks and yet is never wholly convincing - she’s more morose than vulnerable, more sullen than terrified. But the family connections are so mechanically drawn that it’s dramatically ineffectual and emotionally flat.
There should be some emotional investment in the family’s reluctance to send her to a psych hospital, as well as a flood of relief when a doctor finally identifies the problem. Perry and Slate give their characters more substance and personality, but they disappear for much of the movie.Īs Susannah’s condition worsens and continues to flummox medics, the film just gets stuck in a repetitive pattern that drains rather than builds tension, a problem inherent in both the writing and editing. One of the weaknesses of the movie is that Rhona, Susannah’s banker father Tom (Richard Armitage) and Stephen all lack definition as characters, so they just hover uninterestingly on the sidelines as Susannah goes from screaming anxiety to unhinged euphoria while being shuffled from one doctor to the next. No longer able to function in the office or at home alone, Susannah goes to stay with her divorced mother Rhona ( Carrie-Anne Moss), bouncing between high highs and low lows while taking meds that don’t seem to help. Nor do the misdiagnoses of bipolar disorder or schizophrenia later on. Following a seizure, Stephen takes her to the hospital, where the doctors’ guesswork about stress, lack of sleep and excessive partying doesn’t quite explain her lapses into a vacant-eyed trance state. Her boyfriend Stephen ( Thomas Mann) is an aspiring musician who describes his sound as The Smiths-meets-Tom Waits (in your dreams, dude), while Susannah’s deadpanning work chum Margo ( Jenny Slate) calls him “that budget version of Joey Ramone.” Susannah’s editor, brusque but encouraging Richard ( Tyler Perry), thinks she’s ready to tackle bigger stories.īut suddenly, she starts zoning out at random moments, suffering from headaches, missing deadlines and meetings, and imagining things that nobody else can see or hear, like bedbug bites or leaky faucets. At 21, Susannah is happy in what, with just a hint of irony, she calls her “dream job.” She’s a cub reporter at the New York Post, writing exposés on illegal Russian butt implants.
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