I usually don't watch the same film twice. But Waking Madison demanded a second viewing. Madison gnawed at me for weeks invading my daily life, distracting my routine. My inner voice kept telling me that I needed to watch it again. So I finally took a second look. I usually avoid psychological dramas like the plague. I'm usually lost most of the time. I'm not one of those people who like to figure out what's happening, to guess the ending. Instead, I wait as the plot unfolds. I'm willing to dispel reality for two hours and just watch.
What Katherine Brooks has created is a raw, sometimes painful to watch,skillfully detailed story about a woman who can't take living the life she lives anymore. In fact, she is desperate to change it. We meet Madison Walker, lusciously played by Sarah Roemer, as she stares directly into the camera in the first frame and tells us that if things don't change within 30 days, she's going to kill herself. That's the way she says hello. Suddenly we're in a hospital watching her being interviewed by therapist Dr. Barnes (Elizabeth Shue). Madison is quiet and sedate and insists that she would never attempt to take her own life. Yet in the next scene when we see her in her apartment, down on her hands and knees sopping up the floor covered by the buckets of blood left behind from her having slit her wrists, the viewer can feel her anguish and fear as her eyes fill with tears at the realization that she did indeed attempt to kill herself, yet doesn't remember a thing. Ms. Roemer plays Madison with such subtlety and grace that it was a joy to watch. She could be our sister or daughter or best friend. We all seem to know a Madison. Her constant exhaustion and tear filled eyes reflect the agony she experiences every moment of every day while constantly working to put one foot in front of the other. When Madison takes Dr.Barnes' advice and checks herself into a mental hospital she meets a variety of characters. First there is Margaret, who can't resist the temptation to abuse someone weaker, who's always looking for a fight,and always finds one. Talented Taryn Manning brings a physical and psychic energy to Margaret that makes her easy to dislike. At the same time, there is a vulnerability about this young bully which tugs at our heartstrings. The character of Alexis can be grating because she is so terribly needy and childlike but Imogene Poots' walks the line carefully so as not to alienate her viewers. We believe she is this waif-like girl-woman who is damaged to the point of near non-return and we feel angry at Margaret who constantly tortures her. And then there is Erin Kelly, who plays Grace, the young 20-something who accepts her lot in life and gets anything she wants by offering sexual favors. It was a real treat to watch Ms. Kelly, as she's grown considerably as an actress since her days in Loving Annabelle. I've never been a big Elizabeth Shue fan and this film didn't change my mind
.until near the end, when I understood her performance. Until then she often seemed out of character. The small things.....exhibiting fear when Margaret threatens her, her unprofessional emotional attachment to Madison, her losing her cool in the hospital when her patients don't want to cooperate and the one that drove me over the edge
curling her hair with her fingers during a therapy session. Yet, as the movie progressed, it becomes evident why so many of her behaviors seemed so wrong. It was at that moment that I truly appreciated Ms. Shue's restrained performance and Ms. Brooks'adept direction. Two more actresses deserve special mention: Connor Ann Waterman (young Madison) is near perfection. It's easy to understand how grown up Madison suffered as a child through Ms. Waterman's charmingly, innocent performance. And Frances Conroy as Madison's crazed religious fanatic Mom was fabulous. Bottom line, it is Katherine Brooks' script and direction that keeps haunting me about this film. I know very little about Ms. Brooks except that she's in her mid-thirties and that she's been on her own since age 16. However, knowing that she not only directed but wrote this piece blows me away. Brilliant is the only word that comes to mind. She made some absolutely brilliant choices. The lighting and camera angles in the hospital, the transitions from hospital to apartment and back again, from past to present, from alter to alter. I realize that 315 is an important number to Ms. Brooks, yet I have no idea why. Was she trying to help us relate to Madison? Should I know but simply can't remember? Ms. Brooks is a master storyteller who doesn't have any qualms forcing the viewer to wait patiently while she weaves her tale until she is ready to gently reel you in when she wants you to know more. I loved the final therapy scene as the camera literally floated slowly back and forth allowing us to look through the lens of the ever-present video camera and we re-hear some of the same dialogue we heard earlier. But now it all makes sense
or almost all. Inspired. Ingenious. Brilliant. I feel as though I know Katherine Brooks after watching this film. Do I? Probably not. But with Waking Madison, she is giving us something that seems so personal, so overflowing with secrets, so jam packed with suffering, and then finally hope, that I feel as though I'm looking deep into her soul. So I can't help but speculate on how much is actually her and how much simply comes from her creative genius. And I wonder if she's trying to tell us something without really saying a word. Watch the film. Then
watch it again.
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