There are countless classic films and favorite movies that have some element of the absurd established deep within their premise. That absurd element could be anything from a corporate entity looking to police the streets by bringing a dead cop back to life and strapping him with cybernetics, or a VHS tape haunted by a ghost that somehow also enables said ghost to make phone calls to nearby landlines. Some movies dabble into absurdity, while others embrace it whole heartedly.
One look at the full title for Psycho Therapy is likely enough to tell you that this is an absurd film. It tells the tale of a writer named Keane, a nervous, aimless wreck played by John Magaro, who is not trying to write about a serial killer. Instead, he wants to write about 40,000 BC Slovenia, with a book about the last neanderthal on Earth. The last neanderthal comes across a woman, one of the first homo sapiens to walk the Earth, banished from her people because she refused to eat dead neanderthal children. They’re sworn enemies, but it is so cold, so very cold.
His wife, a woman named Suzie, played by Britt Lower, is tired of his shit. He hasn’t written a novel in four years, but there’s more to it than that. It’s not the only reason that she tries to kill him, but one of them. It’s also one of the reasons that she demands a divorce.
Then there’s Kollmick, played by Steve Buscemi. He tells Keane that he used to be a serial killer, and could help Keane write a book about him. A book about a serial killer, directly from the mind of a serial killer. Keane accepts his counsel, and when Suzie catches the two of them together Keane calls the former serial killer a counselor. Suzie assumes that means a marriage counselor, and Keane just goes with it.
It is an absurd premise for an absurd movie that takes itself seriously, and it works.
The film, the English debut from Turkish director Tolga Karaçelik, runs at a pace that’s quick and snappy. It’s impeccably shot, with a score that walks the line between the eerie and the bizarre. While John Magaro and Britt Lower are both excellent as the husband and wife, Steve Buscemi is perfectly cast as the retired serial killer eager to have a book written about him.
It’s too bad there’s just not much depth to any of its ideas.
If Psycho Therapy was an item to be ordered at a restaurant, it would be the sample platter of appetizers. All of the appetizers are good, mind you, but delivered in small portions, and before you know it the tray’s done, the entrée’s been skipped and the desert menu is on the table.
The idea of a writer learning the ways of a serial killer for the purposes of writing a novel from a direct source is interesting, and there are a couple of scenes of that. The idea of a serial killer pretending to be a marriage counselor is interesting, and there’s a little bit of that, too. There’s a constant sense of awkwardness as everyone tries to rationalize themselves, leading to a mess of confusion and chaos, but that mess is cleaned up and before you know it the movie’s over.
It’s unfortunate that the movie largely interrupts the development of its story and rushes toward a climax with a sudden epilogue to wrap things up. It avoids exploring the narrative fate of its characters, but it does explore their thematic fate with a return to absurdity taken seriously. The absurdity is there, has always been there, as the flavor, the spoonful of sugar that livens up a drama about a disparate marriage, making for a thrilling and surprisingly funny film that’s over too soon.
7/10