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6 people want to check themselves into an insane asylum: Model
housewife Maud (Pepper Binkley), perverted Doctor Raby (Daniel Irizarry) -
who's eventually to be revealed to have a mortal fear of sex -,
androgynous rapper Alan (Bill Dawes), hardcore computer nerd Alice (Stella
Maeve), introvert exhibitionist Miranda (Camille O'Sullivan) and
self-proclaimed terrorist Paul (Lee Wilkof). Problem is, this asylum is
a very exclusive loonie bin, and there is only one vacancy - so the six of
them have to compete each other to determine who's the maddest of them
all. The other problem is ofcourse that at this place, the loonies seem
to have long taken over the asylum, it's a truly weird place where the
Doctor in charge never actually shows but watches over everyone by his
all-seeing beard (!). And the worthiest of our sextet is determined by a
series of bizarre tests, one of them being a talent competition.
Eventually, Dr Raby and Maud revert to some kind of normalcy, actually,
when they embark on a relationship while the rest of the gang, led by
Paul, want to take over the asylum as such. They even think they are
winning, not realizing that this is all part of the beard's plan. Eventually,
all of the contestants are put into some kind of machine that visualizes
their warped fantasies. Among other things, it shows Doc Raby trying to
leave the asylum and Maud shooting him before he can in some kind of joint
fantasy ... and this seals it, both Maud and Raby are allowed to stay, not
so much as patients but as companions for the person behind the beard -
whcih turns out to be a little girl. The other loonies are released onto
the real world once more, which might be much loonier than the asylum, so
all of them make big careers ... Asylum Seekers is not a film
to be taken seriously - at all. Actually it's more of an exercise in
madness, and even though plotwise it makes some sort of sense overall,
isolated segments don't and aren't even supposed to - which doesn't mean
that these segments aren't at times hilarious. And at its best moments,
this film is almost a masterpiece of surreal humour ... but unfortunately,
this film is not made up exclusively of best moments, it has its
shortcomings, too, like an uneven ensemble cast - while some characters
are great and greatly acted, others are as clichéed as they are pale - or
episodes that are either too childish or too wannabe-intellectual to
actually work. All that said though, on the whole the film is still a
fun ride, it just could have been a masterpiece and isn't.
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