Stockholm Film Festival

It's not always easy to help people, not even when it's your job, and especially not if you are going through a deep trauma yourself. This is what's troubling Henry, an LA-psychiatrist - played by Kevin Spacey - who has recently lost his wife in a car accident.

Director Jonas Pate takes us to Henry's side of "the city of angels", where the psychiatrist finds himself facing his surroundings with the same numbness as he faces the emotionally stunted patients who drive him to distraction. Having recently published a book on happiness, Henry feels like a fraud and turns to his pot dealer for "self-medication" and personal advice. Needless to say, facing neurotic and narcissistic A-list clients is not easy, and most of all; how is he supposed to handle a pro bono case concerning a troubled high school-student from the Hills, who actually has real problems.

In the same tradition as Robert Altman's "Short Cuts", "Shrink" presents an original mix of characters, witty one-liners and run-ins. Even though grief won't go away, new meetings and productivity might actually be born out of tragedy.
JOHANNA LAGERKRANSER

Cast

Kevin Spacey, Keke Palmer, MarkWebber, Dallas Roberts, Saffron Burrows

Producer

Michael Burns, Braxton Pope, Dana Brunetti

Script

Thomas Moffett

Cinematography

Lukas Ettin, Isaac Phillips

Music

Ken Andrews, Brian Reitzell

Spoken language

English

 

Other films from the American Independents section

See all the festival films from 2009