Givré!

For some reason I ended up watching 3 movies about mental disorder this week. The first was "Helen" starring Ashley Judd which was very powerful but thoroughly depressing. The second was "The Bridge", a documentary showing people jumping to their deaths off the Golden Gate Bridge. Not as morbid as it sounds, but still heavy stuff. And the third was "Numb" which was totally refreshing.

Here we get Matthew Perry's unique brand of humour (charmingly cynical) but much more laid back than you'd expect from his Chandler role on Friends. Here he plays the part of a person who is mature & basically stable yet suddenly hit with an acute case of insanity. In that respect, there's almost a childlike quality to him as he seeks to discover what went wrong. I think that's what makes this so fun to watch, even though the prospect of losing one's mind is inherently depressing.

This is no madcap comedy with witty zingers & one-liners. It's more of a situational-laugh thing. Some of the gags are really subtle, like jokes set up without any punchline (which you must infer). A lot of the gags are based on crazy awkward situations. For example, a psychiatrist starts to lose it in a restaurant, talking in a controlled whisper one minute and then yelling at the busboy to "F OFF!" the next minute for filling her water glass. Lol, no punchline required.

I think this film found the perfect balance between comedy and drama. Too much comedy, and it mocks the subject. Not enough comedy and it gets depressing. "Numb" got it just right. It has both comedy as well as some insightful, dramatic moments.

If you are among the privileged few who have... shall we say... unusual brains (interpretation: total nutcase), or if you know someone who fits the description, you should watch this movie. It'll give you a greater appreciation for the people who have psychological problems as well as those who love them. And it'll do so by giving you some laughs and a smile on your face.

I saw this at the Austin Film Festival and thought it was one of the best romantic comedies I have seen in years--and from the most unlikely source material. Beautifully written with a light hand, it exploits extreme situations for humor but always goes beyond simple shock value and superficial, quirky tics. (This writer has had enough of movies like Superbad and Knocked Up, which wear audiences out with shock humor, and I didn't see the point of Napolean Dynamite, in which minimalist, oddball moments fail to accrete to a real story.) Numb is instead an eccentric, hilarious film with depth, heart and soul. The tone was spot on: though based on deeply painful autobiographical material, Numb is never maudlin or pathetic. And Matthew Perry is outstanding--prevented from being outlandishly Matthew Perry ("Zero," the director reportedly commanded him. "Nothing. You're numb."), it seemed he was forced to funnel his comic genius into tiny, brilliant moments. A gem of film.

I picked this up on a whim after having only seen a brief trailer for it on another movie. I am SO glad I did. As one of the other commentators pointed out, depersonalization disorder is a real problem for some people. Unlike Perry's character, I smoked weed everyday for a little over two years before it suddenly flipped a 180 on me and threw me into a panic/anxiety disorder coupled with what I was calling dissociation (not feeling right in your own skin, as they say in the movie, is spot-on). I felt "out of pocket" for over two years after my incident and never really went completely back to normal. I eventually managed to get over the chronic anxiety (after six months on Lexapro and about a year spent seeing a psychologist). Anyway, sorry to go on about myself, but it is just such a relief to see this on film! I'm even a writer as well (fiction not screenplays), but this is uncanny. My doctor also told me there was nothing physically wrong with me, just like in the film. I had an MRI and multiple other tests which all yielded nothing, like in the film. I had read some blog entries of people experiencing this, but my doctor had no idea what was wrong with me and my shrink had never really heard of it either. I felt just as alone and helpless as Perry's character does.

This movie did an amazing job of showing the effects of this little-known disorder. That whole part about looking at your hand or an object and not feeling like it's actually there, even though you can physically feel it -- completely true. I wanted to crawl out of my skin at times, and it is just so cathartic to see this film now, years after the fact. Perry is brilliant in this role and didn't even slip into Chandler-esquire tropes that have somewhat become his trademark (although, unfortunately, he will always be compared to that character). The dialog is actually quite good and the romanticism in this film isn't overbearing and contrived like so many other rom-comedies. In fact, I normally avoid rom-comedy for that very reason. Numb avoids the pitfalls and cuts right to the uncontrived truths. It doesn't rely on cuteness or sentimentality and the wittiness shines. Of course it's not perfection, but I couldn't have asked for more. Thank you Harris Goldberg. You did well.

Hudson Milbank (Matthew Perry) is a depressed Hollywood screenwriter who can't feel anything. He bounces from one psychiatrist to another. His life takes an interesting turn when he meets the lovely Sara Harrison (Lynn Collins).

Director/writer Harris Goldberg doesn't have the creativity to make this movie quirky. I wasn't certain what it was trying to do for quite awhile. Then Lynn Collins gets into the movie and I figure this was a nice little rom-com. But then Lynn gets yanked out of the movie. It completely disrupted the flow. Mary Steenburgen provided some quirky funny moments in the last half, but it's too little. Lynn was sorely missed. A depressed Matthew Perry is just not compelling all by himself.

Goldberg's 'Numb' tells an intense and funny 'tale' of a writer suffering from depersonalized disorder while facing other difficulties (his kleptomania, his dysfunctional family, his love). This is no disease-of-the-weak movie that preaches about a sickness because Goldberg adds plenty of humour that is dark, satirical, subtle, dry and adult while keeping us entertained from start to finish. He also keeps us involved in Hudson's life. I wonder how much of it is based on Goldberg's own experience. The dialogues are funny, witty and clever. Though the movie does sort of mock psychologists and psychiatrists (in a hilarious way) but the problems surrounding the disorder and the central character's anguish is well depicted and people will recognize them as almost everyone has felt depersonalized at least for one moment or another. Matthew Perry's excellence in comedy is already well known and here it was great to see him act on a more intense level. The actor can definitely do more than comedy (as was also evident in 'Birds Of America'). I think it is the first time I heard him say the 'F' word. His understated performance as Hudson draws sympathy from the viewer but also laughter during the lighter moments. Of the 'Friends' lead cast, only Perry along with Lisa Kudrow and Courteney Cox seem to have 'grown' as actors. Lynn Collins holds her own and has a good screen presence. Mary Steenburgen is laugh-out-loud hilarious as the steamy 50+ psychologist who hasn't done 'it' in seven years. Thus, 'Numb' was a fun and enlightening watch. Goldberg and Perry have done a superb job and this is one movie I definitely would be revisiting soon.