Numb
by Harris Goldberg
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DVD details
Actor: Helen Shaver, Kevin Pollak, Mary Steenburgen, Matthew Perry, William B. DavisDirector: Harris Goldberg
Brand: Image Entertainment
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, Enhanced, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 94 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-05-13
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT
DVD Reviews of Numb
DVD Review: Living a dream that lost its meaning
Summary: 4 Stars
In the director's commentary, Harris Goldberg says that people have responded to this movie for three reasons: 1)The Love Story. 2)The Actors' performances and/or 3)For the depiction of Depersonalization. There are a core group of people who identify with the story and are glad to see depersonalization depicted on film. As Goldberg states, it tends to help people to see this movie and realize, "Oh, I'm not the only one."
Matthew Perry performs admirably as Hudson Milbank. Hudson still knows what is real and what is not real although the whole shebang doesn't FEEL real to him anymore. He can live "as if" he is fine and in many cases people may not realize there is anything wrong with him. If anything appears odd about him it is that he seems overly anxious, overly spacey, and that he tends to tell store clerks that life feels unreal. He seems intent on figuring out what is going on with him and to find someone who knows what he is talking about. Anybody who has experienced depersonalization knows what this is like. I think Matthew Perry, as well as writer/director Harris Goldberg, were correct in playing less is more for most of this. There are also specific things in this portrayal which were particular and familiar, such as Hudson counting the number of days he'd lived and how many he was likely yet to live.
This is the first movie I recall seeing where the main character has depersonalization disorder. (this is amazing considering how many other conditions have been explored on film through the years.) I wonder if the world and others are catching up with the depersonalization experience and/or it is becoming more common and/or understood. Or perhaps it is simply that more people are now using the diagnostic name. Writers have written about unreality and the dream-like experience of life for ages, as have meditators and mystics...(see also all the movies about dreams, dream-like realities, life-being-like-a-dream) So is depersonalization a disorder, or a major factor of being human?
I think people who want a cute Matthew Perry movie that is funny and sweet may not get entirely what they expect. "Numb" could have been marketed more like another truthful and funny (as in the humor that comes from pain and from daily and mundane life as well) movie -- The Savages.
In sound-bites Numb sounds like a movie about a man trying to get well in order to "win the girl" in a kind of mad dash through psychiatry-- Well, it is more complicated than that, and for one thing it seems more about a man who is trying to get well so he can feel alive and experience his life. Being in love is a big part of that, but you can't feel anything when you are depersonalized, even when it is right in front of you.
Although you may not think it would be, this is a hopeful film.
** A couple asides: there are two other books about dissociation in addition to "Feeling Unreal" -- called "The Myth of Sanity" and "The Stranger in the Mirror" There may be more, but these are others I've found.
**To clarify something other reviewers mentioned, in the movie Hudson states he had a predisposition to depersonalization before he smoked marijuana, although marijuana, as well as some of the medications and antipsychotics he is prescribed later in the movie don't seem to help and/or exacerbate his sense of unreality.
**The interactions between Hudson and his parents are extraordinary. Well-written, spot on.
Description of Numb
Hudson Milbank (Matthew Perry) is convinced that he's going insane. But he's just met the perfect girl (Lynn Collins, The Lake House) and struggles to be his most charming self. Meanwhile, he frantically seeks a cure for his anxieties and goes through a string of therapists who turn out to be crazier than him. Co-starring Kevin Pollak (The Usual Suspects) and Mary Steenburgen as a hilarious lusty psychiatrist, Numb will warm the heart of anybody who has ever teetered on the edge of a breakdown.Bestsellers in DVD
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