The Scribbler (2014) Reviews

• Enjoyable, but not as complicated as it pretends to be

  CountJonnie2014-12-01

  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.

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• Missed opportunity

  joris-nightwalker2015-01-26

  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...

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• Interesting

  Red_Identity2014-09-20

  I quite liked this. I think it could have done more with its premise, but as it is, it's pretty visually stunning and the performances are quite good. I've never thought Katie Cassidy had real talent, but she does some fine work here, always elevating the material when it needs it and providing a good contrast to the other roles she's played in the past. Dillahunt is a joy to watch, like always, and probably the MVP supporting player of the film. It's nice to see so many of these TV actors in roles in this (Buffy's Eliza Dushku and Michelle Trachtenberg, as well as The Sopranos' Michael Imperiori). I do recommend this, even if I get that it's pretty problematic

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• Not for everyone, but it's most likely going to be a cult classic

  hashtagtechnobabble2014-09-22

  A lot of people will hate this film, but those who like it will absolutely love it. Katie Cassidy completely reinvents herself playing Suki, a girl with an extreme case of dissociative disorder. She is extremely convincing and personally gives what I consider the best performance of any actress I've seen this year. The supporting characters, besides Eliza dushku as a criminal psychologist, all give great performances as well. This is based on a graphic novel of the same name. Usually, film adaptations of literature take tons of liberty's and end up being som thing completely different than the the literature they're based on. This is the exception. Everything from the look of the halfway house to what happens to the machine is exactly the same as the graphic novel, and I do mean everything. Probably 70% of the lines are taken directly from the graphic novel word for word. The only exception is the americanization of the characters and the two detective characters. A lot of viewers will hate this. Those of us who like it will fall in love with this movie almost instantly. It oozes cool and has cult classic written all over it.

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• A classic case of style over substance

  brchthethird2014-11-02

  Here is yet another film I went into mostly blind and...it was OK. There were some plot elements that recalled SUCKER PUNCH and MEMENTO, but for the most part it was its own thing and very distinguishable from those. The plot is about Suki, a mental patient with dis-associative identity disorder who is undergoing treatment with a machine that is supposed to "burn" away those extra, unwanted personalities. There have also been a recent rash of deaths of which she is the prime suspect. The best thing I can say about this movie is that it has a very cool visual style and some decent effects and action despite the low budget. Sure, the rain-soaked, color-corrected, graphic novel-esque look has been done to death in the years since SIN CITY came out, but this one felt original enough that it was interesting to watch in that regard. However, I thought that the story brought nothing new to the table, and was equal parts silly and stupid. And, despite a "who's who" of character actors filling out the cast none of the performances were that memorable, let alone great. Katie Cassidy does fine in the lead role as Suki, but she never shows much range. All of the other characters border on caricature and are only there as the plot requires them to be. Also, the plot was very thin and only really does something with it in the last act with a twist that can be seen from a mile away. So, if you like comic books and/or graphic novels and you're looking for something different, by all means check this out. However, if you require a little more from your movie than cool visuals and the barest minimum of a plot then maybe you should skip this one.

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