Difficult, fascinating drama runs on pure emotion, not logic...

Rating: 7/10 (22 May 2006)

Multiple Oscar winner is an astounding, gripping piece, although occasionally the material allows too much showing off for its star and the four-letter dialogue coupled with the bleak material can be exhausting. A softened (albeit no less hard-hitting) film-adaptation of Ken Kesey's novel about sex-deviate Randle McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) sent to a mental institution instead of prison, quickly butting heads with the stony head-nurse on his ward (a hissable Louise Fletcher playing Nurse Wretched--uh, Ratched). Ostensibly a downer, the film does get a rousing kick from Nicholson, going full bore with an actor's relish and infusing the movie with unpredictable, kinetic energy. Director Milos Forman helps us get to know the patients at this hospital, easing us through the preliminaries and yet sparing us none of the ugliness. Still, this plot is a bit thin on the screen; Forman does his best to "open up" the material, which was first produced on the stage, but the sequence on the boat is more an emotion-based relief for the audience's benefit than a logical turn of the story. Tough-going, compelling film is occasionally brilliant, with Nicholson and Fletcher both winning Oscars, as did Forman and producer Michael Douglas. *** from ****