TheCrowdedRoom attempts to crowbar in contemporary wisdom about the importance of treatment and the shortcomings of the medical system, ideas that scan conspicuously out of time and place.
Over 20 years ago, screenwriter Akiva Goldsman penned the script for “A Beautiful Mind,” the Oscar-winning biopic of mathematician and diagnosed schizophrenic John Nash. To convey Nash’s subjective experience of his condition, “A Beautiful Mind” pulled a bait-and-switch. Early in the film, we meet Nash’s college roommate, who becomes his lifelong friend; later, it’s revealed the roommate was a figment of Nash’s imagination.
Written largely by Goldsman, who has sole or shared credit on each of the series’ 10 episodes, “The Crowded Room”treats Danny’s mental illness, formerly known as multiple personality disorder, like a bombshell to be withheld for maximum impact. The choice is a grievous mistake that torpedoes the show, and not just because the big “surprise” lands with a thud when it finally arrives.
After her astonishing turn as Elizabeth Holmes in “The Dropout,” Seyfried is criminally underused as Danny’s interlocutor. “The Crowded Room” could’ve structured itself around her character, an academic scrambling for tenure as she navigates divorce and single motherhood. In fact, the pace does pick up considerably once Goldsman drops the ruse and turns his focus to Danny’s defense, spearheaded by Rya. But that shift only occurs past the series’ halfway point.
Postponing the pivotal twist at least delays the onset of the showboating, awards-bait kind of performance one associates with concepts like “The Crowded Room.” When it arrives, with Holland toggling between accents and physical affects, the result feels more like a compilation reel from a star struggling to break out of the Marvel orbit than a convincing transformation.
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