Directed by Nick Willing. 109 minutes.
Starring Goran Visnjic, Shirley Henderson, Fiona Shaw, Paddy Considine, and Miranda Otto. Released by First Look Pictures.
Doctor Michael Strother (Goran Visnjic) makes a slip of the tongue that later nearly costs him his life in Close Your Eyes, a British thriller directed by Nick Willing, based on the critically acclaimed novel Doctor Sleep by Madison Stuart Bell. This is only the first fumble made during the film by one of the characters in as story littered with poor decision-making. For example, why do characters continually leave doors open when a crazed killer is on the loose stalking them?
Strother’s goof occurs when he is treating Janet Losey (Shirley Henderson), who is a D.I., unbeknownst to him. The doctor has the uncanny ability to read his patients’ minds, a trait never fully explained in the film. Hypnotizing Losey and telling her to lay off the smokes, he envisions a young girl in a river, the scene that opens the film. It turns out that the girl escaped from a ruthless serial killer who murders young girls in order to become immortal. Believe me, it’s difficult to explain in under 1,000 words. For a doctor practicing without a license (also too difficult to explain here), Strother’s slip is pretty careless and, well, slightly unbelievable. Needless to say, Losey enlists him to help catch the killer and coax the mute, traumatized girl who escaped to cooperate.
This, of course, results, in a series of false discoveries, nightmares and visions on the doctor’s behalf, and random, gruesome murders of several of the minor characters involved in the case. The death-by-rat experienced by one of them is especially grim. Thrown into the mix about halfway through the film are an amusing scene in a nursing home in which an uppity old woman lips off to the two leads and a surprise ending that you really won’t see coming. After years of Hollywood piling on trick endings, it is refreshing to see an ending that actually tricks you.
It is what leads up to the end, namely the film itself, that is less original. The plot has been borrowed from various other thrillers, namely The Silence of the Lambs (in terms of the scenes depicting the kidnapped girls). There are some genuinely eerie old dark house moments that benefit the film and the cast, which includes Paddy Considine (of In America), Henderson, Visnjic, and Miranda Otto (of Lord of the Rings fame), delivers. Unfortunately, they are mostly misused and the numerous scenes of Losey being berated by her superiors borders become quickly tiresome.
Doctor Sleep is an acclaimed novel. I haven’t read it, but I imagine that it better establishes its two lead characters and dives into Doctor Strother’s past more than the film does- there is one scene which explains him losing his license, but does not really clear things up. At the film’s end, Henderson’s character has resumed smoking, which shows that Strother’s treatment, like the film, works for a while, but is not an overall success.