20140124: Drama Review--Apart

Apart

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2011, UR, 85 minutes, drama, mystery, romance.
2. IMDB: 5.2/10.0 from 434 audience ratings. 
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 11% on the meter; 55% liked it from 209 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 2.9/5.0 from 33,396 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Aaron Rottinghaus. Written by Josh Danziger and Aaron Rottinghaus.
6. Starring: Olesya Rulin as Emily Gates, Josh Danziger as Noah Greene, Bruce McGill as Dr. Thomas Abner, Joey Lauren Adams as Dr. Jane Sheppard.


2. Setup and Plot


1. In the first half or so of the film, we follow Noah around as he tries to remember his past.  He's lost much of his memory in some acute personal event.  Several people assure him that this is a good thing.  He looks for Emily, finds her, gets past her thorny personality and direct resistance to visiting the past.


2. Supposedly Emily and Noah are linked by a psychiatric disorder which lets them know each other's minds.  Even worse, they see visions of bad things happening to those around them.  It's tough for Noah to recall.  For similar reasons, it's tough for Emily as well.  Even worse, they are not able to ward off the bad things happening.


3. The first such event was when they were around eight years old; the second around when they were high school seniors.  The first was a bus crash.  The two of them recuperate, more or less, in the same hospital.  The second was a fire, the culmination of a sequence of unfortunate events during late high school.


4. All this is nonsense, and assigned to folie à deux, or induced delusional disorder.  In this case, "She's crazy and made me do it," or "He's crazy and made me do it." The simpler explanation is "He is crazy and she is crazy."  So, own up to it and get them off the streets: two crazy people are over-indulged and allowed to hurt others unnecessarily.


3. Conclusions
1. Folie à deux (Induced delusional disorder (F.24) ICD-10) is in the literature; wikipedia has a nice article about it.  However, this is the worst vanity indie film I've seen in months.
2. One line summary:  Two defective children are bad for each other and those around them.
3. One star of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 10/10 Fine work.  Amazingly good considering the foulness of the screenplay and most of the acting.


2. Sound: 10/10 No problems.


3. Acting: 3/10  The veteran actor Bruce McGill delivered as usual.  The rest of the cast was terrible.  The two principals were the worst.  The three points are for Mr. McGill.


4. Screenplay: 0/10 This was a rat's nest of nonsense of endless re-interpretations.  The script is as bad as the acting of the two principals.  There is about five minutes of content stretched over 85 minutes.  Rotten Tomatoes got it right at 11%.