LUCID (MONGREL MEDIA, 2005)

By Rick Jackson

Co-written, produced and directed by Winnipegger Sean Garrity, Lucid is an incisive and thought provoking drama about reality vs. delusion.

On the surface, Garrity and his screenwriting partner, Jonas Chernick, who also plays psychologist Joel Rothman, focus their story on him and his average caseload which includes three patients who figure prominently: Sophie (Lindy Booth), a drug addict with signs of post-traumatic stress disorder; Chandra (Michelle Nolden), a delusional compulsive-obsessive whose sister has been left in a coma after an accident; and Victor Koblinsky (Callum Keith Rennie), a paranoid, angry man who has a history of domestic violence and is also delusional.

As you watch Rothman work with them, something strange is afoot but we are never really clear exactly what it is, including Rothman's own problem with sleep deprivation. Instead of explaining the root of it, we are thrown into his upheaval existence which only he is to blame after he is caught sleeping with another woman when his wife pays him a surprise visit. When his patients begin to show a series of hallucinations, they are mixed with tragicomic and neurotic results.

Garrity's effective direction keeps you on the edge of your seat with the odd touch of humour to keep you entertained. Although there are some loose ends which leave you wondering what happened or where or why, it is the director's own sense of creating something different from mainstream Hollywood.

Despite a Canadian cast not as polished as their American counterparts and Chernick's penchant to overact in some scenes, Lucid manages to become a unique Canadian moviegoing experience. You wonder if, like the characters in his movie, are either asleep or awake watching it. A satisfying conclusion makes it all worth the price of admission.

It is rated 14A, with the warnings: coarse language, disturbing content and mature theme. After premiering at the Kingston Canadian Film Festival, it opened for a regular run at The Screening Room on April 7.

March 11, 2006

Copyright 2006 Rick Jackson