Hollywood movie Mental
Cast & Crew
Director : P.J. Hogan
Producer : Todd Fellman, Jocelyn Moorhouse, Janet Zucker, Jerry Zucker,
Screenwriter : P.J. Hogan
Starring : Toni Collette, Liev Schreiber, Anthony LaPaglia, Rebecca Gibney,
Lily Sullivan, Sam Clark, Malorie O'Neill, Bethany Whitmore, Chelsea Bennett,
Nicole Freeman, Kerry Fox, Deborah Mailman,
Mental is a knockabout black comedy from Australia that starts off exhilaratingly mad and funny, then
progressively loses its edge. It brings director PJ Hogan back together with
Toni Collette for the first time since Muriel's Wedding in 1994.
Rebecca Gibney plays
Shirley, a neglected suburban wife and mother who is on the verge of a
breakdown, unable to think about anything but The Sound of Music, the opening
of which is hilariously recreated in her garden. Her five daughters are also
neurotically obsessed with their own lack of mental health. Her philandering
husband Barry (Anthony LaPaglia) hires a motormouth badass called Shaz
(Collette) to be their nanny, and she shakes up these non-Von Trapps.Opinion will divide as
to whether there is offence to be taken here on the subject of mental health.
My opinion is no, but as the saccharine taste builds up faintly towards the
end, it's a close-run thing. It's always a pleasure to see Collette, a performer
who always cranks up the energy, and yet here, as so often, she gives the
impression of a ferocious screen intelligence somehow not being used to the f
