Unsane (2018)

Movies are often made to serve the purpose of transporting the viewer to an altogether fictional and unrealistic realm. Unsane (2018) was not one of those movies. Between the chilling institutionalization of an otherwise sane woman and the looming presence of a stalker that crosses the boundaries of unrequited love, the film was entirely too plausible for comfort.

Sawyer Valentini (Claire Foy) is a quietly-tormented young professional that has uprooted her life, moving from Boston to Pennsylvania, in order to put some space between her and her crazed stalker of two years. However, the constant paranoia associated with the seemingly ubiquitous presence of her follower has put Sawyer on edge just enough for her to seek treatment at the Highland Creek Behavioral Center. Upon hearing of Sawyer’s occasional thoughts of suicide, her therapist offers her a stack of paperwork to be filled out. Planted in these forms is a written consent sheet for voluntary admittance to the mental hospital for a 24-hour stay. While Sawyer may have unwittingly signed away her life for a short period, she didn’t put it in the safest of hands. Soon after her admittance, her stalker took a position at the center, making Sawyer’s attempts at alerting staff of his presence all the more crazy.

Although the plotline was inventive, there were certain aspects of the story that didn’t make sense. For one, Sawyer seemed to have a deeper insight into the minds of her mentally ill roommates than even the trained staff did. Take, for example, the scene between Sawyer and Violet, a fellow inmate, where Sawyer posits that Violet’s aggression is actually a deep-seated affection and plea for attention. Someone with that kind of awareness would not accidentally check themselves into a mental institution and they certainly wouldn’t need the help of any mental health professional to sort through their problems.

Sawyer also seems to handle herself remarkably well under the pressure of possible death when confronted by her stalker, even devising a clever plan for escape. Yet she couldn’t keep herself from catastrophizing in her normal life outside the confines of the behavioral center. The thought that she could be more sane in a mental institution does not seem to align with reality.

Beyond the protagonist, there is very little in the way of hospital enforcement when it comes to administering medication or keeping those institutionalized safe. While the loose policies seem far-fetched, the overall environment of the institution seemed spot on. There was a very hush-hush demeanor between employees in addition to an almost cult-like camaraderie that served to keep the outside world at bay from both the staff as well as the patients, all in the name of serving “excellent” healthcare to those who need it.

While the storyline could have used some tweaking, I did feel the hair on the back of my neck rise while watching this film. Although I would like to think that our mental health institutions are focused solely on the improvement of the patients, I know all too well the reality of money being the chief concern when it comes to enacting policies and procedures. If nothing else, I learned the importance of reading before signing, if only to avoid that pesky voluntary admittance form that gets thrown in the stack from time to time.