Stonehearst Asylum is very loosely based on the Edgar Allan Poe short story The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether. It takes place just days before the New Year in 1900, with fledgling doctor Edward Newgate (Jim Sturgess) arriving at the gates of Stonehearst Asylum, a remote location where the relatives of the rich and the powerful are hidden away to recuperate from various mental illness. The superintendent Dr. Lamb (Ben Kingsley) exposes the young doctor to his unique theories on the treatment of mental illness. Newgate is impressed, but he soon discovers that there’s something else at play.
The real story begins where Poe’s story ends. It is revealed that the real hospital staff has been taken prisoner, and that Dr. Lamb and his staff were actually patients of the asylum. Newgate decides to play along for a little bit, looking for an opportunity to free the staff and overthrow Lamb. While he plots, he forms an attachment to Eliza (Kate Beckinsale), a patient suffering from Hysteria. With her help, he tries to discover the secrets of the mysterious Dr. Lamb, and makes a plan to restore order to the asylum.
What is most fascinating about Stonehearst Asylum is how it offers plenty sympathy to its ostensible villains. While it is made clear that they are dangerous, it is made equally clear that the treatments that have been prescribed to them are barbaric. On the face of this movie is a pretty standard period adventure, with a hero trying to save a group of people from a bunch of lunatics. But just below that layer is an exploration of the dehumanization faced by those diagnosed with mental illness.
It presents a much more compelling picture than one might expect. It operates on shades of gray often kept unavailable to mainstream cinema. Unfortunately, the film eventually takes its story one twist too far, losing its focus in a messy third act that all but forgets the complexity of the middle act. Action becomes the focus, and while it is competently handled, it feels like a bit of a letdown following the interesting psychological rabbit holes that the film pursues in its middle section.
But the weaknesses of the third act do not undo the ample pleasures of the movie. Prime among these pleasures is a captivating performance from Sir Ben Kingsley. This is not the first time Kingsley has played the eccentric head of an asylum, and it should not be his last. As in Shutter Island, Kingsley displays a bizarre sharpness that makes him particularly suited to his position. Jim Sturgess is pretty capable in the lead role, and Kate Beckinsale manages to make something out of a pretty thin role.
Stonehearst Asylum ends on a bit of a thud, the film piling on revelations that don’t add much to the central effect of the story. But the movie as a whole is still a formidable pleasure. If this movie were simply the scenes of Ben Kingsley hamming it up as the mysterious Dr. Lamb, then it would already be worth the price of admission. But the movie also finds something meaty and complex in the idea of an asylum run by lunatics, exploring the extremes of the circumstances and questioning the very concept of treatment.
My Rating:
