The Treatment

Somewhere between adaptation and shooting, the magic leaped out of this film. The synopsis looked promising and it could have delivered, but it seems that poor casting choices and spotty dialog made it fall short. The leading man isn't quite convincing on film. His technique feels more fit for stage, but when on screen you see an actor and not a character. Famke Janssen and Ian Holm are the two bright spots in the nigh hour-and-a-half feature. Holm was the one actor who garnered a laugh. But they both seem out of place, heavy hitters in a smaller film. It could be that a bigger star was set to play Chris, but dropped out, leaving the film with less studio support while Famke and Ian stayed on. This film has gone on to win some festival awards, which makes me wonder if I missed something, or was simply not in the right mood for the film. Nevertheless, it could have been much, much better.

"The Treatment" is a very well acted romantic comedy that relies on clever dialogue rather than outlandish set-pieces to deliver the laughs.

The story is simple enough - Teacher Jake befriends the young widowed mother of a student and then falls for her. Things are complicated by their different social standings, the fact that Allegra is still grieving for her recently dead husband, and Jake's visits to his psychoanalyst.

The lead actors are all excellent, but Ian Holm's character gets all the best lines in the movie as a nasty psychoanalyst trying to 'help' Jake Singer (Chris Eigeman) stop undermining his own relationships.

Famke Janssen is very, very good in this movie and her performance was my favourite of the piece. Considering the other works I've seen her in I was blown away to discover she was such a good actress.

This is a warm, funny movie that I could happily watch again.

I grabbed this off the shelf without much thought but was generally pleased with it as a selection. It is the story of a single Manhattan high school teacher who is in psychotherapy. The film makes good use of fantasy by startling us with

imaginary interventions by his extraordinarily aggressive and ribald therapist at dramatic junctures during his day.

While the leading character, Jake, has experienced a romantic disappointment in an earlier relationship, the main thrust of his therapy seems directed at a battle against mediocrity. Apparently, a

career as a high school teacher does not count as success. Apparently also, the elderly therapist considers a year without sex a major red flag. Apart from these shortcomings, Jake seems to conduct himself cautiously but extremely well, leaving me wondering about the correctness of his mediocrity.

This film does a good job of representing older people, for example the therapist and Jake's father, as well as others, as something else besides useless. Here they are accepted enough to assert themselves, their intelligence is respected and occasionally heeded.

The plot held my attention through its twists and turns. Two points I felt were a lapse into hackneyed stereotypes involved the feminism of his lover, Allegra. To begin with, she initiates the first sex (even though things seemed to be proceeding along nicely) and routinely assumes the aggressive role after that as well. I questioned whether this would really be cool in real life. I suppose this could be taken as the otherwise lacking evidence of his neurosis by accepting it except that it is all her actions.

Secondly, after they have had frequent and mutually gratifying sex, get along great, he well on his way to being accepted by her two children, and to cap it all off she is about to lose custody of her young daughter because the adoption stipulated a two-parent household-- with all this in play she rejects his heartfelt proposal of marriage because she is 'not ready' just a year after becoming a widow. These two facts might suggest that she, a rich woman, was using him as a convenience. However, the rest of her character as portrayed does not support that at all. Instead the flick is merely waving a PC flag of liberated woman-- even when it is absurd-- to garner brownie points.

Ultimately however, all such complexity of living is suddenly swept away in a traditional happily-ever-after romantic ending--but one so hasty that I definitely felt they were running out of film. I don't want to sound like I would entirely re-engineer the film, but I definitely felt it was going somewhere else.

But these are lapses in authenticity in a film notable for authenticity. It is an engaging and often quite funny flick.

the trailers for "The Treatment" were kinda crappy but the movie is something else entirely this is a movie that is much better than its trailer suggest it's Light hearted and funny with a lot of substance it isn't at all cheesy or dark . the acting is truly amazing we have three unmatchable leading actors Chris Eigeman ,Ian Holm and Famke Janssen all three give some of their best work here..the movie is smart and funny and the ending leaves the Dr Morales bit open is he real or just a figment of Chris Eigeman's imagination? watch this one in theatres fans of any Famke , Ian and Chris will not be disappointed no matter how high their expectations.

Commitment-phobic characters are a dime a dozen in romantic comedies. Yet, no one can deny that they serve a valid function - for without all the tension they bring to the story, how would writers ever get us to that inevitable happy ending? In "The Treatment," which director Oren Rudavsky co-adapted (with Daniel Saul Housman) from the novel by Daniel Menaker, Jake Singer is an English teacher at a Manhattan prep school who falls in love with a wealthy widow whose son is a pupil there. The problem is that Jake, like many men of his generation, seems utterly paralyzed when it comes to taking the full-on plunge into commitment and marriage. In an attempt to overcome this weakness, he regularly sees a shrink who is clearly an advocate of the no-nonsense, "tough love" school of psychotherapy, and who keeps insisting that Jake stop whining and making excuses for himself and simply get with the program.

On the surface, "The Treatment" doesn't appear to be much different from dozens of other romantic comedies that have come our way over the years, but the scenario plays out with so much charm and wit that it makes the situation itself seem new and fresh. We really get caught up in the lives of these characters, mainly because the filmmakers go to great lengths to avoid the superficialities and clichés that render so many romantic comedies phony and unreal. The film is helped immeasurably in this regard by the superb performances by Chris Eigeman and Famke Janssen who have an amazing chemistry on screen and, thus, are able to convince us that these two quite different people could indeed be genuinely drawn to one another. Ian Holm steals every scene he's in as the hilariously deadpan therapist who isn't afraid to say what he thinks, even at those times when he's only appearing as a figment of Jake's guilt-ridden imagination. Harris Yulin is also wonderful as Jake's pragmatic father who still harbors resentment towards his son for not following in his footsteps and becoming a doctor.

Given its low budget, the movie may be a trifle rough around the edges at times, but that lack of polish actually turns out to be a key ingredient in the movie's overall success. For once, a romantic comedy that actually works.