Watch Asylum For Free

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

There have been many films titled 'Asylum' over the years. At least one I can think of was pretty good. The 1972 film with Peter Cushing. Last night we watched one with that name from 2005 starring Natasha Richardson and Ian McKellen. It was listed as a 'Horror' film at Amazon Prime Videos and had a high rating. I would consider it more a steamy psychological drama than horror. As might be expected by the names involved it was well acted. The settings and visuals were well done too. The first one third of the film was promising. It's the story of a psychiatrist named Max that comes to work in a new position at large asylum for the mentally disturbed including the criminally insane. He brings along his seemingly bored wife Stella (played by the late Natasha Richardson) and young son. Ian McKellen plays Dr. Cleave, a long time doctor there that felt he deserved the position that Max was given. The wife (Natasha Richardson) soon falls for one of the inmates, Edgar. Edgar is a man who was found guilty in the murder and disfigurement of his former wife. Yes, what woman could resist such a tempting bad boy like Edgar, geesh. Soon Stella and Edgar begin an unlikely steamy love affair right under the nose of her husband, the guards and everyone else at the Asylum. This place has some security. They have steamy love making encounters right on the asylum grounds in places where he is doing jobs as a trusted inmate. Sometimes they just miss being caught on the grounds by a guard coming to check on him. It all becomes rather laughable the chances the wife takes. Still the first third of the film is intriguing and makes you wonder where it will all lead. Is Ian McKellen's character some how a part of all this? What part does he play in what's to come? Unfortunately the story soon turns into one where you do not care about a single character in the film with the exception of the little boy. The inmate soon easily escapes when he realizes he will not be released anytime in the near future. The wife finds shopping excursion excuses to go weekly into the city where she joins him at his hide out. Eventually Stella leaves her husband to be with Edgar, even though he is now jealous of her talking to other men and beats her regularly. The story goes even further downhill from there dragging on with more depressing and irritating developments. Finally at the depressing end we found ourselves asking ourselves why they turned such a promising drama into such a total mess. Don't bother watching this film unless you like depressing pointless movies with characters you eventually don't care about.

Natasha Richardson shines in this challenging role. She shows how intelligent and seemingly well put together women can put up with abusive male behaviourIt was very telling that her exquisitely portrayed boredom and contempt for her husband's 50's style sexist piggery was so extreme that she made flying into the arms of a deranged (but magnetic) madman seem catastrophically credible. All three of the men in her character's life are deeply and profoundly flawed...though in comparison to the other two, he husband was a *relatively* decent fellow.All the performances are excellent. Ian McKellen does an outstanding job of portraying a fiendishly manipulative malevolent psycho-toxic sick puppy. Of course, he "rises to the top" and becomes a great "success". If you're looking for the typical Hollywood trite "happy ending" look elsewhere. It's clear why this never won an Oscar since the movie is so dark and enraging and even depressing; but Richardson's performance here was indeed worthy of an Academy Award. It's a shame this gifted talent and lovely human being was cut short in her life and career, she will be missed...and remembered.

by kentucky_fried_fetus-1 5 minutes ago (Sat Aug 18 2007 08:37:54) Edit ReplyMy English is poor but I will try to explain my point of view. I think love is something so hard that happy ever after in most of all movies frequently end at the wedding. All romantics thoughts seems as utopias. Some people turn the page on with rational decisions others doesn't have the straight. After they did live together she understand that wasn't to meant, she was so weak mentally that she is incapable to see what was going on with her son, she is empty, alone and deluded. A sick person literally. This doctor is envy of her husband so he want everything that belongs him. He is a very manipulative person and he is consequently incapable of love. So Asylum as the name indicate is about crazy people and this doctor is the craziest. Please correct me if I am wrong.

This is undoubtedly a good film, well acted, good period feel / details etc.. and I certainly enjoyed it, however, by the time I had finished watching it I couldn't help feeling that the it was somewhat out of balance. The last part of the film is all about Cleave getting his revenge on the errant couple because of his jealousy over the fact that Edgar had been stolen away from him. Unfortunately, the dramatic effect is lessened because not enough is made of his relationship with the pair early on in the film. Hints are given that he has a homosexual fixation on Edgar and that he is jealous when Stella starts to get too close to Edgar. Much more should have been made of this aspect to explain his vindictive behaviour towards the pair when he has them in his control at the climax, especially as the scenes where he deals directly with Edgar are very brief. Whether what we see is as a result of severe editing or whether the whole thing could have been written better I don't know. I plan to read the novel to find out whether more is made of this. Worth seeing, but certainly flawed.