Shrink (2009)

Shrink held out the tantalizing prospect of ironic dysfunction as only Kevin Spacey can portray it -- the man can convey two flavors of ennui simultaneously just by fluttering his eyelids -- but the movie proves to be disappointingly shallower than one would hope. That said, Shrink is a funny movie that pulled lots of laughs from the audience of a full arthouse theater (many who had come to see a preview of The Cove that failed to arrive). In Shrink, Spacey plays a Hollywood therapist to the stars like Robin Williams (who plays a reformed horndog now married but nostalgically considering a return to philandering) and author of a bestselling book on how to find happiness who is himself crashing on the rocks of despair and engaged in a scruffy downhill slide through obliviousness and towards oblivion. The first half of Shrink is engaging but gritty as Spacey is nearly constantly smoking tobacco and marijuana and in other ways "self-medicating" (to put it nicely). I realize the setting is Los Angeles and Beverly Hills but breaking the law is breaking the law. I couldn't give the first half of the movie more than a grudging 3 stars. Keke Palmer as an unwilling pro bono therapy client ably goes toe-to-toe with Spacey, at one point chiding, "You realize that getting high in a pediatrician's office might be considered a cry for help." Keke shines in her role as these two struggling souls discover they share a common wound and a mutual balm. Shrink, through its ensemble cast (including Houston native Dallas Roberts as a control-freak movie agent, Laura Ramsey as his more-than-able if pregnant assistant, Saffron Burrows as an actress approaching 40, and Jack Huston as a Colin "fockin'" Farrell facsimile) offers a vague resemblance to Crash or The Feast of Love but in the end falls far short of those movies' emotional content and impact, even settling for a superficially satisfying resolution (almost like an episode of Frasier). I give the second half of the movie a grudging 4 stars for an overall 3.5 stars. (8-12-09)