Anesthesia

Filmmaker Tim Blake Nelson's Anesthesia, a study of existential angst in the modern world, feels sadly familiar and as emotionally desiccated as its pallid characters. The story begins with Walter Zarrow (Sam Waterston), a Columbia University philosophy professor, being stabbed and robbed while walking home from campus. Collapsing in the vestibule of an apartment building, Walter is aided by Sam (Corey Stoll) and Nicole (Mickey Sumner), whose flat he randomly buzzed. Sam is an adulterer staying with Nicole while telling his wife (Gretchen Mol) that he's on a business trip in China. Other connected plot threads center on Walter's family—his wife (Glenn Close) and his son (Nelson), whose own wife (Jessica Hecht) is about to undergo tests for ovarian cancer, while they also have to deal with a drug-related mini-crisis involving their teen children (Ben Konigsberg and Hannah Marks). Also added to the mix are a troubled student (Kristen Stewart) of Walter's who is cutting herself, and an angry addict (K. Todd Freeman)—a street thief who is forced into rehab by a friend (Michael K. Williams). Anesthesia juggles these interconnected stories, but while a few moments ring true, overall the characters feel more like sketches spouting painfully unconvincing dialogue. Optional, at best. (F. Swietek)