Christina Ricci’s Paranoid, an R-Rated Thriller Brings Your Mind to Your Home
Written by Robert Scucci | Published
in 2018 It is distortedstarring Christina Ricci and John Cusack, has an 18 percent critical score on Rotten Tomatoes. As someone who really likes bad movies, I had to check them out. What caught my eye, however, was a Popcornmeter score of 74 percent backed by over 500 ratings, suggesting that this low-budget flick might be better than critics would have you believe. My take is that it’s a fun running game, a psychological thriller. It’s well-made, well-shot, and sells its paranoid premise like any other film cut from the same cloth.
On the other hand, the screenplay doesn’t do the film any good. Cusack and Ricci play off each other a lot, and there’s a lot to be said for their on-screen chemistry as they pull off a conspiracy involving a suspicious luxury apartment, mild mind control, and mental illness. It’s a great concept with solid production values, and everyone on screen does their best with the material. But it also sounds like they’ve been working since the first draft that wasn’t fully realized before it was released.
When Bipolar Paranoia Is Corrected
Like most second-rate psychological thrillers, our unfaithful female protagonist must have some sort of mental illness. Lauren Curran (Christina Ricci) suffers from a psychotic disorder, which affects her husband, Russell (Brendan Fletcher). Since Russel is a successful businessman, although you never see him in action, he decides that they need to move out of the city to an apartment with a future near the beaten path. These smart homes have everything you could want, with high-quality amenities and security, which is very important to Lauren because a previous home invasion led to the death of their child, which caused her illness.
Right away, nothing is as it seems It is distorted. Lauren, and only Lauren, hears strange sounds and sees strange images on her television. As he checks the CCTV feeds on his iPad, he notices some tenants behaving strangely. His concern is fully focused after talking to a resident named Phillip Starks (Vicellous Reon Shannon), who works in consumer psychology and talks endlessly about subliminal messages.
When Lauren expresses her concerns to Russel, it is labeled as delusional manipulation, causing him to question his own state of mind. Of course, there are a bunch of shots of Lauren staring at a pill bottle, presumably Lithium, as if taking an extra dose or skipping one will send her into a mental break, which isn’t exactly how that works. His suspicions, however, are confirmed by John Cusack’s Vernon Sarsfield, a journalist, criminal, and conspiracy theorist who has been lurking in his building for reasons of his own.
In many words, Lauren is not paranoid. Vernon is about to uncover a massive mind control conspiracy that uses him and his fellow citizens as human test subjects, and he needs her help to put an end to it before it’s too late. Meanwhile, Russell tries to get her checked into a mental hospital because, as far as he knows, Lauren has had episodes like this before, and she’s not seeing what she’s seeing.
You Get What You Get
However It is distorted it tries too hard to play an “unfaithful female character with a mental illness”, it is not convincing under scrutiny. Christina Ricci does a great job acting nervous when the moment calls for it, and Cusack delivers at a high level, but the story is structured in a way that makes any psychological thriller fan see what’s going on right away. You’re left wondering if Lauren is crazy. He thinks, yes, something strange is going on here, and he will eventually be vindicated.
Because of this, there is no real tension. Lauren’s “hallucinations” are visually interesting, but I never bought them as mere ideas. It’s obvious that you’re being cheated on, and picking that up early kills the idea completely. It is distorted trying to sell.
My experience is watching It is distorted it’s one of those rare times when the divide between critic and audience favors the critics. I wouldn’t call it a bad 18 percent because it’s shot and acted well, and has enough visuals to keep things interesting. But the story is sloppy and obvious, which is the death sentence of any psychological thriller.
If you’re a fan of the talent involved, it’s worth watching, but it won’t rock your world. It’s still much better than that The Glass Househowever.
As of this writing, It is distorted is streaming on Netflix.
