Mesmer [1994]

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2007-09-08 rating:
Dark, but also oddly touching
This film is something of an oddity. In terms of actual plot, it's fair to say that there isn't much of one, but that doesn't seem to matter. It's the rather dark story of Franz Anton Mesmer, a doctor in 18th century Austria who shocked and angered both the medical profession and polite society with his theories about energy and magnetism.

Alan Rickman, who is always at his best when playing characters who are slightly contradictory and ambiguous, is excellent in the title role. Dennis Potter's screenplay never really comes to any judgement on Mesmer's abilities or character, leaving the audience to make up their own mind. What is clear throughout is that Mesmer doesn't much care what anybody else thinks of him, and that this alone in polite 18th century society was perhaps enough to turn his peers against him. Ironically, the polite society into which Mesmer's unhappy marriage to a vile widow has elevated him (Mesmer's father was a gamekeeper) conceals an unpleasant underbelly of cruelty and abuse, as is made clear by the relationship between Mesmer's blind patient and her hypocritical father, and by the hard-to-watch scenes in which Mesmer's stepson attempts to rape his mentally ill cousin. Franz Anton Mesmer himself is an intriguing blend of innocence and cunning, a man of genuine visionary spirit but whose vision is ultimately flawed, capable of great sensitivity but also of conceit.

The supporting cast are also impressive, although the film does fall into the costume drama trap of extras made up of slightly unconvincing grubby-looking peasants with a range of deformities. There are a couple of scenes which don't quite work for me (hence four stars instead of five), one of which is unfortunately a key scene at the very start of the film. But overall, this is an interesting and, like all Dennis Potter's work, slightly unsettling film with a strong cast and sensitive direction.

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review by: tekmonkey date: 2007-08-01 rating:
Too much staring into space
I thought this would be good - but you know what thought did. It was slow, no obvious plot and -well just don't bother


review by: date: 2004-01-18 rating:
Yes, somehow painfully failed but still worth every star
First, I understand well, why some people regard this movie as a failure. Something clearly failed here - or wasn't thought through. It's hard to see, why, since the actors are good, there's clearly a lot of money put into the film and I do like Potter's scripts, even this one. Maybe it's just editing. Or maybe all this was left open to let us think.

The movie then... Mesmer really existed and as far as I know, the movie has the basic facts right. He lived in Austria and was deported. How awful his marriage was, I don't know, but in this movie it's clearly an arrangement, money for the doctor and a civilized and apparently younger husband for a rich woman, who already has a grown son. They say mean things to each other all the time and the son seems cruel and stupid. Cruelty, stupidity and abuse seem to be uncovered everywhere around Mesmer as the movie goes on. I've also read, how many people complain about all the open endings in this movie. 'What happens to the girl? What happens to...?' But Mesmer is thrown away from his old life and forced to leave things - and in life that happens: there are no real endings except death. And a lot is expected from the audience here. When Ooms finally regains her sight, it seems to happen because of an accident, but in hypnosis the surprise effect is very important. They didn't know what they were doing, whether to believe or not, so the unconscious mind had to be jolted. Surprised. Maybe that was the failure of this movie: too much knowledge is expected from us.

The technical flaws... At times particularly Rickman's voice was very hard to hear and the plot seems a bit loose. I admit he's got the most expressive face, eyes, voice and hands in the movie business and for once they were very well portrayed. In fact, the movie seems to rely on them. I was a bit confused, what was the point of the movie. Was it a historical piece, romantic story - it even had some comedy, as great tragedies often have. Mesmer seems to fail, although in real life he actually did cure people. And then he said his bit about how much pain there is in the world and how he could not bare not to be able to do anything to relieve it. And there was the point; that's why Dennis Potter, already dying, wrote the script this way. Even the kissing scene, which to many people seems very romantic and sexy, seemed sad to me. As if Mesmer couldn't believe something like that really happens to him. Even the ending made sense, then. This is a man, whose heart is aching to do something good in a world filled with pain and cruelty, selfishness and ignorance, but fails because one man isn't enough. Even the one he cures isn't saved, because the world doesn't understand what he was trying to do, what he was trying to make people see. Dennis Potter's testament, maybe? After I realized this, the silliest, oddest things seemed to fall into place - like Rickman staring at the moon and playing with his musical instrument in the attic, that was shown over and over again. I suddenly remembered: what do teenagers do, when nobody understands them and they can't get away? They go to their room and play music until their mind becomes blank...

Oh yes, Rickman was born to wear cloaks (see Snape and Sheriff of Nottingham) and white ruffles around his throat, Amanda Ooms is lovely and the acting and the sceneries are great. And to remind, why Rickman is so great as a villain, he gets to throw the boy down the stairs. Suddenly a burst of energy and passion, making the character even more complicated, more human - because that's what Rickman does at his best: complete, complicated, deeply human characters.

It's a very different kind of movie and many may not like it, but it's well worth watching. One gets to see an actor like Rickman far too little, and Dennis Potter was an excellent writer, even if this wasn't his best script. I loved it. It was very different from the super hero and cartoon character movies. We need to be reminded of real humanity and the fragility of people this way, because there seems to be very little room for compassion, pity and understanding in today's world.

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Video . DVD & VHS . Categories . Drama . Historical
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Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Release Date (feature_three_browse-bin) . 1990 - 1999
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