How
does someone drift into the condition known as schizophrenia?
Revolution No. 9 is an attempt
to provide a picture of the transformation from sanity to
psychosis. The film is divided into nine parts, each beginning
with a numbered title. James Jackson (played by Michael Risley)
and Kim Kelly (played by Adrienne Shelly) are sweethearts,
to be married in six months. James completed college with
a 3.9 grade point average, is an on-line arts magazine writer,
but lives in a dump, whereas Kim is a cocktail waitress. One
day, Kim's nephew (played by Jase Blankfort) sends James email
that he feels has subliminal messages via a television commercial
for Revolution #9 perfume. The messages, James believes, are
part of a plot to control (deconstruct) his mind. Although
Kim tries to help him as he begins to act strangely, and James
agrees to meet a psychotherapist, he later objects, and he
will not take the prescribed medicine. James tries to contact
Kim's nephew, but her brother objects. James has a confrontational
meeting with the director of the Revolution #9 commercial
(played by Spalding Gray), but that goes badly. Perhaps the
most interesting part of the film is the commitment hearing,
in which James's court-appointed attorney tries to avoid having
a magistrate commit him to a psychiatric facility, but James's
weird remarks at the hearing result in an order for a two-week
commitment. Ultimately, James escapes. In the end, he is standing
on top of a building on the verge of suicide. Directed by
Tim McCann, Revolution No. 9 could
not have been made without knowledge of the development of
schizophrenia and of the way in which commitment hearings
are conducted. Unfortunately, however, the film does not underscore
the fact that medicines nowadays can bring a schizophrenic
to a level of manageable sanity. MH
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