Shrink: 73 Out Of 100 Stars

Was a bit surprised, after I had viewed it, to find out that this was pretty universally panned. It's got like a 20% at Rotten Tomatoes. That being said, I can see where some of the disdain comes from, but for the most part I don't quite agree with it.

Kevin Spacey is doing the Kevin Spacey thing as a therapist who is grieving his recently deceased wife by being sullen and quietly angry and smoking lotttttts of dope.

The first 20 minutes or so of the film are a bit of a test to get into as we meet Spacey, a therapist who caters to the who's who in Hollywood, and a myriad of his patients who are never given a great deal of screen time. It's a revolving door of character introduction that doesn't feel very coherent or well put together.

But as the film progresses the characters begin to intermingle and the plot gains focus. Now then, a lot of the complaints are about how the film does this and how character A meets character B and how it all comes together so nicely, but that didn't bother me nearly as much as it seemed to bother a lot of other people. I didn't find it so odd that the people orbiting Spacey would come together as neatly as they did. Maybe it's a tired cliche now a  few years after Crash, and maybe it's an easy to use plot device and yes there were times where the coincidences are a little too cute, but not enough for me to actively grow disdain towards the film.

With that out of the way there are a ton of great performances here. Spacey is his usual awesome self, and his scenes with his pot dealer, a kid who looks no more than 15 but understatedly has the best head on his shoulders of anyone in the film, are quite awesome.

The scene stealer though is a young black actress, grieving the passing of her mother and lashing out both at school and home. She's sent to see Spaceys father, played by Robert Logia, who passes her case off to his son as a way of attempting to get his head back in the game after a failed intervention. The two have a reserved and understood understanding of what each is going thru and really shine when on the screen together.

There are many more sub plots that weave in and out of the film, Spaceys step god brother, A hypochondriac agent, a drugged out actor who longs to be more than he is, an A list couple on the brink of divorce. All will interact with one another in some way throughout the film and for the most part I thought it was handled pretty well.

So in summation, A script that's much more than it's been given credit for, powered by some performances that are stellar gives you a pretty damn good movie that doesn't break any new ground but is certainly worth a look.