LUCID (Sean Garrity). 89 minutes. Opens Friday (March 17). For venues and times, see Movies, page 97. Rating: NN Rating: NN
A shrink and his patients gather in a bleak office looking out on downtown Winnipeg. The patients relate delusions that begin to blur into one another. Then the shrink finds his own hallucinations synching with theirs Spooky but strange, because Lucid is more of a quirky character comedy than a psychological thriller. .
Sean Garrity ‘s second feature is marked by the same spiky intelligence that characterized his debut, Inertia. This time he’s co-written the script with lead actor Jonas Chernick , who’s convincing as an ill-at-ease father living with the fallout from his own adultery. He’s especially good playing off Callum Keith Rennie as a guy filled with the rage of all manhood.
Like most independent-minded Canadian features, Lucid follows no recognizable genre, but freely lifts elements from more conventional forms — in this case the psychological thriller. But the effect of such drive-by referencing is brief stabs of genre satisfaction dashed by a failure to follow through and by an overall lack of conviction in the power of genre-movie thrills.
As the story feints between angsty confession and familiar plot points, you can’t help but ask, What does this film believe in?
