This film gives a beautiful insight into psychological issues people face after trauma, and as such could easily serve as an educational material. However, the film is more than that. It is also an unpredictable and surprising story, which will satisfy many film lovers.
The story portrays a psychiatrist Dr Jane Mathis (Vinessa Shaw) who survives an attempted murder from a patient she has been treating for a while. As we found out later in the movie, it was a wrong treatment and the fact the psychiatrist insisted on treating trauma in this way (i.e. by pushing people to talk and think about the trauma too soon and in too many details) her patient is about to commit a suicide when the psychiatrist walks in and then gets attacked. As we learn, the patient had psychological problems and with the push from Dr Mathis she forced herself to remember sexual abuse in childhood and details surrounding it. Therefore, one trauma has caused another trauma solely by remembering it before coming to terms with the past the patient remembered in the first place. A truly educational part that can be useful for everyday situations, i.e. even though we are not psychiatrists we do sometimes have stressed people around us, and if those people refuse to say what is wrong when we asked them perhaps it is worth the effort to leave it at that in the first instance to see what happens.
After the attack the psychiatrist leaves job, and works from home on low profile cases while also taking medicines and dealing with trauma. However, a phone call from a man who has survived a car accident that left him with changed and quite unpleasant appearance changes that. The psychiatrist eventually accepts to treat his trauma only to cause more trauma and agony again.
Nevertheless, the patient that tried to kill her left the hospital and is trying to attack her again which brings to psychosis and this is the part when we see Dr Mathis slowly losing it, taking too many pills and generally being quite hysterical. As the trauma progresses and as the film starts to show us that psychiatrist has psychological issues too we no longer know what is happening. In the end, in Dr Mathis’ head she is trying to defend her loved ones from murder by her previous patient but one by one we realize that it is her who is killing her own loved ones, one by one.
The film is a true delight for those film lovers who like to watch a good thriller from time to time. Once again, Netflix’s production has shown a superior understanding of how to both create an interesting and dynamic story while preserving social and even educational element to their entertainment programme.
Thank you for reading.