MOVIE REVIEW: 10 Days In A Madhouse will stick with you! - Best Feminist

Going on this journey with Nellie Bly, 10 Days

In A Madhouse will stick with you!

10 DAYS IN A MADHOUSE MOVIES REVIEWS BEST FEMINIST

5 out of 5 STARS



January 18, 2015 By Erika Jones

Sitting in the theater, I squirmed in my seat, impatient for the movie to begin and finally see Nellie Bly up on the big screen.

Well, okay. Cards on the table, I didn't really know anything about Nellie Bly before discovering this movie, save a few passing remembrances of grade school history classes various "important people to know" but I should have! Come on, a badass feminist icon getting a film all about her? Yes please. So finally, when the screen projected the familiar green rating sign and the lights dim in the theater, the first images of the film appeared.

At first I was a bit skeptical - a medical room, a woman being held down while being watched over by a well groomed authoritarian looking man (what turns out to be a fascinatingly complicated and quietly tragic performance by Christopher Lambert). The chilling scene is well done, but familiar. Oppressed girls, cruel white men, tears. Everything is terrible.

Was this what the film was going to be? I laid back in my seat, preparing myself to settle in for two hours of thrashing, beatings, and crying women, watching Nellie's spirit be broken by the system. oh what a world, isn't it Nellie?
But then the movie surprised me.

After the opening credits had rolled, (an unsettling yet mesmerizing slideshow of old photographs, slowly having been made to move- listing slightly to one side, or a rogue arm waving hauntingly back at the audience) the movie begins on a different note, we are finally introduced to a chipper bright eyed Nellie Bly (played by the equally exuberant newcomer Caroline Barry) as she approaches an old timey news building.

Bly's incessant smile is almost comical, in fact being pointed out and chastised as she talks to a superior inside the news building. It's there that she gets her famous marching orders - to feign insanity to get into 'the madhouse'- Blackwell's lunatic Asylum. Just these first 20 minutes of the movie prove a nice reprieve from the intensity of the opening scene, even having a few fun borderline silly moments and touching performances.

And Bly's fearless nature, seeming to ignore all of the patriarchal bonds shackled on her as she walks confidently into a room (and a career) full of men was exciting and inspiring. I was on board, I was hyped! and when the time came for Bly to go into the madhouse, I shifted uncomfortably in my seat, anxious for how this aspect of her journey would be portrayed.

"I was on board, I was hyped! and when the time came for Bly to go into the madhouse, I shifted uncomfortably in my seat, anxious for how this aspect of her journey would be portrayed."

The madhouse is dirty, and uncomfortable to watch. The abusive crew of negligent nurses in the asylum, spearheaded by a delightfully dark and unstable Ms. Grupe (Played by Alexandra Callas) deliver equal part disdainful indifference and malice to the patients of Blackwell's. There are cringe worthy scenes of violence, and an array of colorful patients, but what had me leaving the theater so satisfied was the theme of hope.

It is an interesting phenomenon, because even through all of the unspeakable cruelty and horrible conditions, you can't help but believe in the plucky Nellie Bly- due in no small part to newcomer Barry's ability to carry the story of our heroes infallible good nature so deftly. There is growth with many characters- good and bad, portraying a refreshing array of grays shaded in between the black and white of good and evil, caretaking and cruelty.

The film is intense, difficult to watch at times, and yes there is thrashing and crying. But what's important is what they're using the violence to show- not just to victimize these women, but to uplift and show the unyielding resilience of not only women, but people.

Going on this journey with Nellie, watching her fight and persevere, her famous unfailing optimism grows, changes, evolves- but it never quite leaves her, or us. 10 Days In A Madhouse will stick with you. The struggles, the injustices, the hope. but mostly I think it'll be that great wide smile of Nellie Bly's.