The 11th Patient

This surreal and unique film is a literal trek through a teenage boy's nightmare. There's _very_ little to no dialogue until about an hour into the film, when the situation is finally explained, and even then, the dialogue is pretty minimal. The gist is: a comatose victim of kidnapping has been brought to a doctor specializing in PTSD, who also (prepare for nonsense in 3, 2, ...) has the ability to view the boy's dreams and speak to him via microphone. But if you can manage to get your mind past that silliness, the rest of the film is actually really interesting. In fact, I think it would have fared better without any dialogue at all.

I'd love to only have good things to say about it, as I really did enjoy it, but the ending (which acts as a very short epilogue) _does_ leave much to be desired.

Cole's story is a fascinating one. The theoretical exploration of "state of mind" during various periods of one's life with the same ease as VR exploration is something science has been trying to achieve for decades. It is also a concept dying to be exploited in science fiction.

"The 11th Patient" is the latest film to tackle the notion of reaching into the mind of others, this time it is done through a psuedo-scientific method much like "The Cell". It is highly conceptualized visually, while the story stays pretty simple. Most of the real attention seems focused on creating atmospheric nightmare tableauxs.

Cole takes a big risk choosing to let almost all of the story be told absent dialog. For over two-thirds of "The 11th Patient" not one word is uttered, requiring the audience to fully invest and allow the main character's journey and interactions with his nightmares tell the story. It is creative and there is a lot visually to hold your attention. Still a few scenes of exposition dialog as "invitation to the experience" would have been nice.

Viscerally, the film is like horror candy. Each scene and every element is pure creepy, atmospheric fantasy. It does become a bit dull and often looses cohesion when trying to move the story forward. It all plays out like a super long music art film with actual character drama and connect becoming muddled. It really hangs tightly on the belief that the audience is really into the story's basic concept.

Dialog does eventually enter during the last act. It tends to fit with the suggested logic already playing out in the movie, and only seeks to reaffirm the simple understanding that the story is about a boy in a coma and "psuedo science" to the rescue. The horror is front and center but never crosses the line beyond high production horror attraction fodder. There is some obvious signs of talent here and overall "The 11th Patient" is no worse than "The Cell".

I came into this without knowing anything about the movie. What little they give you at the beginning helps you to realize what is going on; then we learn a little more. I thought it was very well acted and well done.