In the joy that was Misery, Annie Wilkes was novelist Paul Sheldon’s “number one fan”. That was until she took umbrage at his move from romance to crime, shackled him to a bed and shattered his ankles with two mighty swings of a mallet. Prompting one of the most memorable revenge lines in film history: “Eat it till you choke, you sick, twisted fuck.” A close second to Chief Brody’s “Smile you son of a bitch” in Jaws.

The parallels between Rob Reiner’s take on Stephen King’s thriller and Steven Soderbergh’s experimental Unsane ‒ experimental because it is shot on an iPhone7 Plus to startlingly disorientating effect  ‒ are numerous in that stalking is the central theme, ankles are duly rendered lifeless and both end with a plot twist in a restaurant which suggests the ordeal is far from over.

The ordeal being that the central character Sawyer Valentini (Claire Foy), a lonely data analyst who once harboured dreams of being a radical doctor, believes she is being stalked by David Strine (Joshua Leonard). A man she met in a Boston hospice while visiting her dying father who got up close and personal too much and too often for her liking. So much so that a restraining order was imposed and she fled to a new city to start a new life in a new job. Albeit a humdrum one.

Anxious and depressed, she Googles “support groups for victims of stalking” and arranges a meeting with a sympathetic counsellor at a medical facility whose soothing name calls to mind waterfalls and birdsong: Highland Creek. Unfortunately, she finds herself up a creek of a different sort when she unknowingly signs paperwork which leads to her committal. Initially for twenty four hours, but after “multiple acts of violence” brought about by confusion and cabin fever, at least a week. Or until her insurance company catches on to the money-making scam.

And who should rock up to administer her medication? David Strine in the guise of a hospital orderly. But is he really a stalker and has she ever been stalked? Or is she what the no-nonsense Nurse Boles (played by the Glasgow-born Polly Mckie) calls a danger to herself and others? The jury is out. And Soderbergh keeps us guessing for the best part of an hour until he finally reveals his hand in a taut, thrilling finale.

Director: Steven Soderbergh
Writers: Jonathan Bernstein, James Greer
Stars: Claire Foy, Joshua Leonard, Jay Pharoah
Peter Callaghan
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