A poor man’s update of David Rabe’s stage play and film “Hurlyburly,” “Shrink” is a mechanical, pseudo intellectual account of Henry Carter (played by Kevin Spacey).
Henry Carter is a Hollywood author and psychiatrist whose self medication with marijuana, after his wife’s suicide, threatens to ruin him.
Henry is a lazy shrink to a handful of celebrity basket cases including Patrick (played by Dallas Roberts), an OCD script agent whose assistant Daisy (played by Pell James) becomes romantically involved with Henry’s would-be screenwriter nephew Jeremy (played by Mark Webber).
A pasted-in subplot involving depressed ghetto girl Jemma (played by Keke Palmer) serves to help Henry wake up and smell the coffee when he takes her on as a pro bono patient.
At least Hurlyburly’s cesspool of vacuous Los Angeles pretenders had some panache and ability to articulate their seething pain, all “Shrink” has is a condescending attitude to its audience.
Think of “Shrink” as “Refer Madness” for the 21st century.
Rated R. 110 mins.
