Elyse – Slow
Director: Stella Hopkins
Writer: Stella Hopkins, Audrey Arkins (Screenplay)
Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Lisa Pepper, Aaron Tucker, Tara Arroyave, Fran Tucker, Anthony Apel
Plot: Memory and hallucination intertwine to expose a history of trauma, revealing Elyse is Catatonic and institutionalized in a State Hospital.
Tagline – The heart, the wayward heart, is just a wild animal.
Runtime: 1 Hour 35 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Elyse starts as we meet a woman named Elyse (Pepper) who has been struggling with her life, feeling distant from her husband Steven (Tucker), getting jealous of the maid Carmen (Arroyave) around the house and hating her mother Goldie (Fran Tucker) for visiting. She does seek help in Dr Philip Lewis (Hopkins), before her condition get worse, leaving her in a catatonic state, as her loved ones try to help put her life back together.
Thoughts on Elyse
Thoughts – Elyse is a film that is tackling the reality of a family needing to come to grips with the idea that a family member has slowly broken down into a catatonic state, with the difficulties and frustrations of what has happened before the breakdown started. This is a slow paced movie, with the two main parts of the story being broken in two halves, which will show the life falling apart with Elyse, and her condition after an incident. The performances in the film are strong for the most part, even if you want to see Anthony Hopkins, he isn’t going to be a major character in the film.
Final Thoughts – Elyse is a slow movie that never seems to get going to the pace it wants too.