Asylum

A mid-20th-century bodice-ripper about sexual obsession and questionable sanity, Asylum doesn't live up to its admirable pedigree. Adapted by Patrick Marber (Closer) from a novel by Patrick McGrath (Spider), directed by David Mackenzie (Young Adam), and featuring a stellar cast of gifted British actors, the film has buttoned-down 1950s atmosphere to spare, but fails to turn its foolish heroine into an empathetic or understandable character. Natasha Richardson plays a restless wife whose polite, passionless marriage begets dangerous ennui and an affair with a murderous patient (Marton Csokas, The Bourne Supremacy) in her shrink husband's (Hugh Bonneville) new psychiatric hospital. It's hard to sympathize with this woman who stupidly—and, of course, tragically—forges on, to the detriment of her family and her own sanity. Richardson's character's wheels are locked in one direction, so waiting for her to careen over an emotional cliff just isn't that interesting (despite topnotch performances from all—particularly Ian McKellen in a mesmerizing turn as the hospital's sly and manipulative head shrink). Not a necessary purchase. (R. Blackwelder)