InSight (2011)

Directed by: Richard Gabai | 88 minutes | drama, thriller | Actors: Sean Patrick Flanery, Natalie Zea, Angeline-Rose Troy, Adam Baldwin, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Veronica Cartwright, Christopher Lloyd, Juliet Landau, Max Perlich, Lesley-Ann Brandt, Matt Knudsen, Rick Overton, Daniel Roebuck, Rance Howard, Jamie Wozny, Lonnie Henderson, Brent Pope, Tim Abell, Melissa McCarty, Ron R. Anantavara, Diana Busuioc

How reliable is our own brain? Nurse Kaitlyn (Natalie Zea) is sure that the female victim of a brutal stabbing just before her death spoke to her in the emergency room. But according to Kaitlyn’s colleagues, the victim had already died before she was driven into the hospital. Kaitlyn, however, remains utterly convinced of her own perception. Moreover, when she gets memories of the murder, as if she herself were the victim, she decides not to have herself checked, but to investigate.

Kaitlyn’s investigations eventually lead her in touch with Detective Peter Rafferty (Sean Patrick Flannery), who becomes intrigued by her doggedness on the case. As it conveniently goes in such situations on film, the two quickly feel attracted to each other. Rafferty also loses his sanity a bit, which is useful for the plot, because for a detective he sometimes makes very strange decisions. But maybe that’s also because there is so little light in his office. It really makes you wonder where the cinematographer was with his thoughts.

While Rafferty nevertheless tries to approach the matter as soberly as possible, Kaitlyn increasingly identifies with the victim. She even goes so far as to start taking sessions with the same psychiatrist (played by Adam Baldwin) as the deceased. Slowly but surely it begins to dawn on the viewer that this lady is actually not quite following. But the nice thing about the film is that it takes a long time before you can put your finger on what exactly is wrong. Where ‘InSight’ appears to be full of clichés on a superficial view, on closer inspection it appears that more than once a game is actually played with it.

However, by no means all attempts to distinguish the film from the crowd come to fruition. Anyone who takes the story too closely will not have much fun with ‘InSight’ anyway. Here and there you have to turn a blind eye when the screenwriters go off the rails again. If you do that, however, you’ll end up with an entertaining film. With a few interesting surprises and nice supporting roles from Christopher Lloyd and the aforementioned Adam Baldwin, among others. In more capable hands, ‘InSight’ could undoubtedly have realized more potential. But for a film by Richard Gabai (including ‘Kickboxing Academy’ and ‘Virgin High’) he is actually still surprisingly good.