Shock, Surprise, Confusion, Fragility
Director Jennifer E. Montgomery’s film This Tempting Madness opens with ominous music, a voiceover on the fragility of the mind, and scenes of a woman falling multiple stories from a building.
Severely injured after bouncing off walls into a safety net, the woman, Mia (a skillful Simone Ashley), awakens out of a coma with physical and mental impairments. She has short-term and long-term memory loss, multiple wounds, and broken limbs.
She learns that her husband Jake (Austin Stowell) has been accused of attempted murder. Montgomery and her co-screenwriter Andrew M. Davis focus the plot (which is based on a true story) on Mia’s recovery of mind and body, and on learning who caused her fall and why.
The filmmakers use a number of techniques to convey the mental conditions of both Mia and Jake: multiple flashbacks, skewed and angled frames, sudden screen shots, conflicting images and dialogue, and a music score by Rebekka Karijord.
These sights and sounds—including bloody wounds and the cracking of bones—are part of the director’s attempts to create shock and surprise. They work together to represent the confusion and fragility of the pair.
Mia’s background story, involving her south Asian family’s attempt to separate her from the very white and very preppy Jake, contribute to the film’s billing as a psychological thriller. But it’s the acting by Ashley and Suraj Sharma, who plays Mia’s protective brother, and the supporting cast members who carry the weight and make what they can of the somewhat thin story.
Ashley’s work will keep you in your seat until the film’s final credits roll. The ending may be more of a tepid than tempting resolution to a film that is more psychological than thriller. You be the judge.
Screenings of This Tempting Madness (98 minutes, USA, rated R, in English) at the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival April 23-28 are sponsored by Dave Keitel.