Numb (2007/I)

Director:

Harris Goldberg

Writer:

Harris Goldberg (writer)

Release Date:

14 June 2008 (UK)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

Love is better unmedicated.

Plot:

A chronically depressed screenwriter desperately tries to cure his condition when he meets the girl of his dreams.

Plot Keywords:

Estrangement | Female Nudity | Crotch Shot | Mother Son Relationship | Nudity

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Matthew Perry	...	Hudson
Lynn Collins	...	Sara
Kevin Pollak	...	Tom
Bob Gunton	...	Dr. Townsend
Helen Shaver	...	Audrey
William B. Davis	...	Peter
Mary Steenburgen	...	Dr. Cheryl Blaine
Benjamin Ratner	...	Stan (as Ben Ratner)
Noah Danby	...	Tim
Monique Ganderton	...	Debra
Mark Acheson	...	Homeless Guy
Patricia Harras	...	Dr. Simon
Brad Ganes	...	John
Ingrid Torrance	...	Female Psychologist
Brian George	...	Dr. Richmond

MPAA:

Rated R for language, some drug use and sexual content/nudity.

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

Canada | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Australia:MA | USA:R | Netherlands:AL

Filming Locations:

Langley, British Columbia, Canada

Company:

Insight Film & Proud Mary Entertainment Productions

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: After Hudson shoplifts the candy and he and Sara have an argument outside the store, you can see Hudson's microphone inside his shirt. The bump is visible where it was taped into place.

Quotes:

Dr. Cheryl Blaine: I suppose that I have spent so many years listening to other people's feelings that I have neglected my own.
Hudson: And it's all coming out now, here in the restaurant, in front of all these people?

Soundtrack:

Godless

Excellent Movie

I have been rooting around for sometime now for a movie that would speak to the inertia that has settled over me in various cycles during the last decade or so. This would be a movie that would address the issue of being a potentially gifted person, but who is stunned by the oppressiveness of modern life: frightening economy, unpredictable jobs, the no-rules relational chaos of post-modernism.

The last movie I saw that got to this was "Wonder Boys," about an insightful English professor who couldn't function because of being emotionally stunned. While it is flawed and at times, forcing itself too much on you, "Numb" is that great new movie that gets into the struggle for identity.

Matthew Perry does a convincing job as Hudson Milbank, a modern LA freelance writer, trying to find meaning and connection. The film cleverly dances in and out of his early life, showing his times with fittingly remote and narcissistic parents, especially a destructive mother who is played perfectly by Helen Shaver, a great Canadian actress who masterfully conjures cold, chipper, semi-ice-queen figures.

It also has a hysterical and realistically frightening bit about a highly credentialed psychiatrist, Dr. Cheryl Blaine, played ably by Mary Steenburgen, who has her own bout with borderline syndrome and sexaholic tendencies, which she can't seem to restrain from unleashing on Hudson, who seeks her help with his condition.

The funniest line of the movie comes when she chases him out of a restaurant in a predatory moment, asking him about his family. To which Hudson, in a mid-trot, grunts to Tom, his writer sidekick played by Kevin Pollack: "uh...run." You can't decide whether Dr. Blaine is funny or terrifying, maybe the scariest female character since Sharon Stone in "Basic Instinct."

There are so many familiar handles in this movie, I can't even remember them all. Besides the out-of-control, counter-transferring female therapist, let's see...there was

-- Spending most of your leisure life in bed being hooked on one brand of inanely topical TV, in this case, The Golf Channel. Many of us have our times escaping into with some kind of nerdy TV; mine is The Weather Channel, for my ex, it is The Fishing Channel, and an old roommate couldn't live without The Military Channel.

-- Trying an unending series of anti-depressants, thinking you will find one magic pill to fix you. Hudson becomes so much a regular at the HMO pharmacy, that we see the pharmacist playfully wishing him luck with his latest prescription.

-- Being up and out at 4 a.m., insisting this is the only time you really feel good about the world.

And there are many more moments I recognize in this movie that come from the benumbing, joyless periods that seem to settle in on us. without answers, at various times in the post-modern world.

What director Harris Goldberg does that is so helpful is he makes many of the trapped moments funny and he resists offering up a trite resolution. Hudson finds hope in certain things and soon abandons them, going on to his next illusory beacon. It is a waiting game until he finds the next bit of relief, kind of like real life.