SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Rob-120 Dr. Jenny Isaakson (Liv Ullman) is a Swedish psychiatrist who specializes in treating the mentally ill. But Jenny finds her own sanity in question, as she starts to fall into a midlife depression. After a failed suicide attempt, Jenny has hallucinatory dreams where she is haunted by her psyche (her deceased parents, her loving grandparents, her patients, etc.) It's left in question whether or not she fully recovers from this. Ullman gives a powerful performance in a serious drama about mental illness. Bergman directs well, with long takes and occasional split-screen imagery. But this isn't a feel-good movie that you want to see more than once.

MisterWhiplash Hey, it's Bergman PLUS Liv Ullmann, the greatest actress on the planet, and she's playing a psychiatric doctor who is slowly but very surely going wholly bonkers. Scenes carry depth and anxiety and a sense that things can come apart even when things seem serene - and when it gains momentum near the end, it's a wonder to behold. What's not to love? Actually, I will be critical of one scene - in the 2nd half of the film, Bergman puts Jenny, his protagonist, into a double-state (hey, why not when it's a psychological thing) as she is about to, and does, a suicide attempt and recovers in the hospital and then goes into dream states. Most of these dream scenes are effective in depicting a mind at battle with itself and the personal demons of old coming back in full force (two such scenes are when Jenny confronts her parents, a back and forth *true* Love/Hate scene that is staggering, and another where she is surrounded by her patients in a room, one of them her grandfather who says flat out he's afraid of dying, to which she responds 'Just count to ten, and if you're still alive... count to ten again', which is great).However, there is a scene that is very heavy-handed to me - yes, even for Bergman - where he has his leading lady see herself in a casket, the casket is closed shut as she is yelling and banging on the door, and then the casket is set on fire as Outside Jenny laughs. To me, this just made me go "Really, Ingmar, you're gonna go there?" But that's nitpicking when in the midst of a master at work, and boyo-boy it is a master at a career peak - given a boost by Ullmann, who starts out pretty sweet and 'normal', and then her character goes through a traumatic event (an attempted rape), but we learn that this is not even what makes her go insane - far from it, that's just the icing on the Crazy Cake. As Bergman delves deep into this woman's psychosis, it reveals how harrowing it can get, but also, ultimately, how important it is to live and to try to find some semblance of peace. Love, ultimately, is the goal, to find some caring and harmony in life while we're here.If nothing else, the scene where Ullmann finally unloads her personal and mental baggage on a bewildered but patient and understanding Erland Josephsson should've gotten her TEN Oscars by itself. I rarely say this, but God bless Liv Ullmann, and Dog bless Ingmar Bergman. ;)

Martin Teller The first time I saw this, I thought the dream sequences were disappointing. The second time, I found them interesting. This time, I felt they were a mix of the two. Some work and some are too histrionic. And that describes the movie in general. I can't keep making excuses for it, it's just not very good. There are amazing moments (the rape scene, Jenny's talk with her daughter) but then are moments that are embarrassingly hacky. It's a rather vague and cheap depiction of madness, surprising because we know Bergman can do it well (see: THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY). That final breakdown is cringeworthy. I don't blame Liv Ullmann. Bergman himself felt the movie was a failure, too ambitious. Despite some masterful elements (including a lot of Ullmann's performance) it's one of his weaker films overall. I will probably never get to see the complete version, which is too bad because I bet it comes together more cohesively, achieves a greater balance.

grellmary In this harrowing film about the mental collapse of a psychiatrist, Bergman shows exactly why he is a master film maker/director. He dissects Jenny's breakdown with such precision, from the meeting with her grandmother to her eventual complete crash into insanity, it is difficult not to be wrenched into the film. The acuteness of Jenny's anxiety and fears grow steadily and continuously as the film moves along and you have no choice to feel it too. The choice of music also exacerbates that feeling of impending disintegration of Jenny's mind. Liv Ullman who plays Jenny does an awesome job in this rather ironic role of the shrink who is slowly but surely losing her own mind. This may be a slow moving film for some, but this is exactly why this movie is done so well. It is a definite watch.