The Scribbler

I don't usually review films as they are very subjective and everyone seems to expect something different but this was getting so much negativity that I thought it deserved some recognition.

I came across this while looking through a list of Sci-fi films but this is not Sci-fi. There is an element of that genre but it's mostly about one persons struggle with certain elements of her character which I found fascinating. What I liked mostly where the images and symbolism that made this film resonate with me very deeply. It's a film that makes you think, some people just don't like to do that so they are dismissing it because they just didn't 'get it'. In places the acting could have been a little better and a couple of pieces in the storyline where a little 'clunky', I agree with that but mostly the style and cinematography made up for it.

I liked the way it was played out, I liked the characters, I liked the story line and I loved the way it ended which was unexpected. The story was interesting in a way that I did not expect too after reading other reviews and especially after reading the synopsis but it was very well handled overall.

If you like films like Memento and Reservoir Dogs (for the story lines not the action), I think you would enjoy this, somebody else said this could become a cult classic and I totally agree, well worth watching !

Suki (Katie Cassidy) is being interviewed by Criminal Psychologist Jennifer Silk (Eliza Dushku) and Police Detective Moss (Michael Imperioli). She recounts the events at Juniper Tower, an apartment building and halfway house for released mental patients. She suffers from multiple personalities and using The Siamese Burn to burn out the extra personalities. She reconnects with Hogan (Garret Dillahunt) who is sleeping with almost every beautiful lady in the building. Soon, these girls are dying from apparent suicides.

This world is surreal to the point of unreal. It's intriguing and unique, but I can't get over the unrealism of the premise. Whether it's Suki or the craziness of the world, it does come off as messy story telling. Although all of it can be excused as a way to inhabit the madness of the characters' minds. I'm with this movie until it loses me somewhat around the middle. I would like to keep some of these ideas and make the rest cleaner.

Another picture that had way more potential than its final product. When a young woman with dissociative identity disorder is brought to some kind of madhouse, people start killing themselves for no apparent reason. With a bunch of eccentric characters and a visual style that provokes Sin City comparisons, this comic book adaptation will certainly entertain people and capture their attention till the last minute. Unfortunately it all feels a bit rushed, bloated and shallow. With b-listers like Garret Dillahunt, Gina Gershon, Kunal Nayyar, Billy Campbell and Richard Riehle, this movie has some fun acting and prevents from feeling amateuristic, but in the end it's just too much a "been there, seen that" movie...

The ONLY reason I watched this is because I like Katie Cassidy, and I'll give anything she's in a chance, such as Supernatural, Harper's Island, Melrose Place, Arrow, Black Christmas, and Kill for Me. However, The Scribbler was a movie that - IMO - was not very good.

It's about a young woman, Suki (Katie Cassidy) who has multiple personalities. One of her personalities is attracted to the only man in the building. Yes, Katie has a rather lengthy topless sex scene. The place she's living is a halfway house for mentally and socially unstable people who are somewhat possible to rehabilitate. The place she resides is called Juniper Towers, but people call it Jumper Towers because some of the inhabitants tend to jump to their deaths. Suki is the prime suspect, and this movie begins with her being interrogated, which leads to the movie being a big flashback, with the sporadic jump to the present. It does have an interesting twist at the end, but having to sit through the rest of this movie to get to that twist is not a fun experience.

I can appreciate that the actors did a good job bringing these crazy characters to life, and they did a good job, but sitting through a movie where most of the characters are crazy is not fun. And the end made absolutely no sense.

Eliza Dushku plays Silk, a police detective, a forgettable character in the movie. Billy Campbell plays the doctor who signed off on Suki's release, but he visits her every now-and-then.

I gave this a 4-star rating. It might prove to be too high. :/

The movie starts out mysterious, trying to be a thriller. You'll see the main character (perfectly played by Arrow's Katie Cassidy), being a suspect in a murder case, who is also a mental patient. As a mental patient she lives in a building full of other mental patients who are too crazy to be credible, just as her head is inhabited by various personalities.

Obviously the movie wants you to wonder what kind of reality (or realities) you're in. While making you think, the movie transforms from a mysterious thriller into something more sci-fi / fantasy. This could be a good thing if it wasn't already well done by The Matrix, or Identity. As the movie transforms from mysterious to crazy and loses all credibility (yes, superpowers), somehow the lead characters succeed in becoming very interesting. Maybe the lead character isn't as crazy as we were meant to believe and her acting skills (together with her co-stars) make this movie watchable and fun, while all the puzzle pieces fall in their place.

My advice: don't watch this movie expecting something very complex, but it's good enough thanks to the actors who take their job seriously. The nod goes to Katie Cassidy. After disliking her in Arrow, she made me a believer. Thanks to her the movie is now a 6 instead of a 5.