A Hole in One Review by Kathleen (4 Stars)

A Hole in One Review by Kathleen (4 Stars) | MatchFlick

Steal of the Day

Xbox 360 Play & Charge Kit (White)
~~$19.99~~
$16.98
The Steal of the Day is offered by MatchFlick's DVD partner, FamilyVideo.com.

[help]

[more]

MatchFlick Member Reviews


	1 review review this movie read all reviews

Movie Details

All Movie Info

Starring:
Michelle Williams, Meat Loaf Aday, Bill Raymond, Tim Guinee, Louis Zorich, Wendell Pierce, Merritt Wever

Directed By:
Richard Ledes

Written By:
Richard Ledes

A Hole in One (2005)

email this review to a friend

Movie Review by Kathleen

May 3rd, 2005

Anna (Michelle Williams) has a problem: her gangster boyfriend Billy (Meat Loaf Aday) is driving her crazy-- literally. His possessiveness, his violent outbursts, his omnipresent pair of thugs, and his habit of beating people to death-- right in front of her-- are weakening her grip on reality. Her parents-- cold, remote, but strongly approving of Billy-- don't like emotional difficulties. When Anna's brother Bobby arrived home from WWII, he was physically intact but suffered post-traumatic delusions. Soon her parents shipped him off to an institution and told Anna "don't talk about Bobby, or you'll never be able to get married." Bobby died after six years in the institution.

There is no one in the small town to whom Anna can turn. Leaving Billy or moving away are not realistic options. When she starts to hear a phantom baby cry, her need for psychiatric help becomes urgent. But (thanks to Bobby) she also knows what happens to people who need help. Imagine Anna's desperation and hopelessness... and now imagine a sudden glimmer of hope. Anna learns about this new treatment that's all over the news. They say it works 100% of the time, curing hysteria, nervous tension, anxiety, and depression. She learns how easy and safe it is ("no worse than pulling a tooth!"). It's the trans-orbital lobotomy!

Also known as the "ice- pick lobotomy", this new miracle treatment is relentlessly promoted by neurologist Dr. Howard Ashton (Bill Raymond). Anna decides this is what can save her, and immediately seeks out the first neurologist she can find.

This film has a startling amount of violence. There's a graphic scene of a young man's lobotomy, complete with squishing and crunching noises. Numerous patients endure electroshock treatments. And don't forget Billy. There's one particularly horrific event where a blood-covered man runs from one of Billy's closets into his living room. The terrified man trips and falls in front of Anna, and Billy matter-of-factly crushes his skull with his golf club. Anna sighs "Why? Why here, even in your home?" and, as Billy shakes brain matter off his club, goes out to see THE SNAKE PIT. Again.

However, the film's violence is not actually gratuitous. Instead, it forces the audience to experience the state of sustained terror in Anna's life. If this violence is difficult to take for 2 hours, you can appreciate that after years of this, a lobotomy starts to look pretty damn good. Despite this unpleasant (albeit necessary) violence, and also a superfluous romantic ending, A HOLE IN ONE succeeds because the character Anna is so brilliantly crafted and skillfully portrayed.

Don't feel relieved that psychiatry in 2005 is not as backward as in the 1950's. Maybe it is. The doctors in the film are ignorant, not evil. Maybe today's psychiatrists will turn out to be as ignorant about serotonin reuptake inhibitors as psychiatrists in the 50's turned out to be about lobotomies. From Prozac to Ritalin to transcranial magnetic stimulation, don't forget that today's magic bullet just might be tomorrow's dystopian movie.

email this review to a friend

Comment on this Review:

Sorry, you must be a member to add comments to reviews.

Join or Login.

Subscribe to MatchFlick Movie Reviews through RSS