Everything Put Together

Radha Mitchell's gripping, sorrowful, quietly on-edge performance as a sunny young suburbanite and first-time mother thrown into the throes of psychological horror by the loss of her newborn baby to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome is consistently undercut by writer-director Marc Forster's (who went on to make Monster's Ball) refusal to let Mitchell's raw, tragic portrayal speak for itself. Far too deliberate in the way he pricks at his heroine's psyche, Forster uses intrusively unsettling music, like a horror movie, and overbearing symbolism (a doctor swats a fly with the baby's autopsy report), while excessively employing hand-held shaky-cam techniques to cheaply illustrate Mitchell's spiraling mental condition. Ultimately, Everything Put Together is so focused on all of the artifice that the story suffers, failing to address some pretty conspicuous questions, such as why even Mitchell's obstetrician has not suggested therapy for the poor woman. Not a necessary purchase. (R. Blackwelder)