Terrifically sad yet brilliant

Rating: Null/10 (14 June 1999)

This was another movie I had heard a lot about but never watched...so I rented it...at 10 PM. Big mistake because this is not the type of film you view before going to bed. An absolute riot one minute and painfully depressing the next- the movie deserves every praise it has received. From script to casting, it works on every level. Like always, Nicholson was fantastic. I have never watched an actor move so seamlessly through a range of emotions- sadness, joy, frustration, rage. My only wish is that Randall could have worked on Nurse Fletcher for one minute longer.
Some call this movie uplifting but I am just not there yet. The tragedies and triumph were nearly meshed-something you don't see very often. The symbolism can looked at from many angles but I took from it one premise: Self-pity and mundaneness are the enemies of salvation. Take a step out of it and the world is new.