Parker Finn adapts his award-winning short film, Laura Hasn’t Slept, into Smile. An evil entity wants to get inside people’s heads and force them to unalive themselves in the most brutal fashion possible. Smile integrates terror with messages about mental illness. Does Smile succeed in advocating for mental health? Is that even the film’s intention?
What’s it about?
Dr. Rose Carter (Sosie Bacon) has had a troubling life. While Rose was just ten years old, her mother, who struggled with mental illness, committed suicide. Rose was the one who found her mother’s lifeless body, lying beside an open bottle of pills. This traumatic experience was the defining moment of Rose’s life, leading her to become the dedicated psychiatrist she is today.
Rose works at an emergency psychiatric hospital, treating those suffering the most from mental illness. One night, Laura (Caitlin Stasey) is brought into the emergency unit, completely hysterical. She claims that she sees an entity smiling at her through other people’s faces and sometimes those she lost long ago. The smiling face is foreboding, almost promising Laura that she will die soon.
Rose tries to pinpoint what is mentally affecting Laura, but Laura promises that something else is attacking her, that it’s not just in her mind. Suddenly, Laura starts to have convulsions from an apparent panic attack. Rose calls for help, only to turn around to see Laura, with a big smile on her face, commit suicide.
Rose is naturally gutted by the situation and goes home traumatized. Suddenly, Rose begins to experience similar visions as Laura, with a smiling face, hiding behind the people she knows or apparitions of the past. Rose knows these aren’t hallucinations and must get to the bottom of the images that haunt her.
My Reaction
Smile uses a standard plot device found in supernatural horror. These films often have a psychologist trying to use logic and reason to explain the unexplainable. We’ve seen this throughout The Exorcist franchise, The Sixth Sense, and others. Rose is this prototypical character, trying to explain the unexplainable.
Parker Finn twists this a bit to have the supernatural directly affect the psychologist. Rose is now the one pleading with colleagues and family members to not rationalize her mental well-being but to listen to her actual situation.
Unfortunately, what could have been an interesting plot device becomes the story’s undoing, as whatever moral goals Finn has for the film are completely bungled. On the one hand, you believe that the movie is trying to raise awareness about mental illness and the stigmatization that goes along with it. But the characters in the film are so over-the-top with their ignorance that it would be laughable if the topic weren’t so serious.
Early in the film, there is a scene where detectives interview Rose about Laura’s suicide. The language used about Laura’s mental state are so unprofessional that it is inconceivable that a detective would interview an expert therapist that way. Throughout the film, you are continuously confronted with these interactions that are as unnatural as the presence that haunts Rose.
Which is it? Is Smile advocating for mental health or not?
It’s over the top, but I get it. The movie wants to make the point that we should be more sensitive to those with mental illness. But wait, Rose isn’t mentally ill. Sure, there is mental health trauma from her mother’s death, but that has nothing to do with the hauntings she is experiencing. So, when characters rightly do question her mental health and ask her to seek help, they come off as scumbags. Which is it? Is Smile advocating for mental health or not?
In addition to plot issues, there is some melodramatic acting in Smile. This also seemed to be a director’s choice, as you see this from multiple characters, expressing heavy emotions that feel unearned. Yet, Sosie Bacon is good throughout most of the film, genuinely earning your sympathy by the end of the movie. Her facial expressions, make-up, and costume make her exhaustion and despair believable. Kal Penn provided the most nuanced and believable supporting performance. Others in the film were serviceable but mostly hampered by limited dialogue.
The best part of Smile was the visuals. The score did heighten the tension and aided jump scares in their unpredictability. The makeup and practical effects worked, especially the designs of the apparitions and hallucinations that haunt Rose. Smile is redeemable because the film’s monsters and visual tricks deliver, especially in the third act.
Overall Rating
Parker Finn’s Smile bungles a subject that requires much care. Mental illness and the state of mental health in society are sensitive topics that were not given the carefulness they need. This could be triggering to individuals either grappling with mental health or know of someone with mental illness.
Although it fails with its commentary, the horror elements are serviceable. Overacting is a staple in many horror films, although it is often more tongue-in-cheek than it is in Smile. Still, Sosie carries the lead well enough to garner investment. The movie’s saving grace is the makeup, creature design, and effects that create enough frights to make the film a serviceable horror. It is an ok movie if you have time to kill with your friends, but do not take Smile as seriously as the film thinks you should.
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