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RATING:  
SINGAPORE : “HERE” is a Singapore film-within-a-film about a man who is sent to a mental hospital after witnessing the sudden death of his wife. Mentally crippled by the tragedy, the man loses all desire to speak. Once warded, he meets other like-minded souls who are also prisoner's of their troubled pasts.
Meanwhile, doctors at the mental institution are experimenting on patients, putting them through a radical treatment programme called "videocure". The man slowly begins his path to self-discovery and in doing so, bonding with a young kleptomaniac.
But will he ever get well enough to assimilate back into society, and maybe talk again? You have to wait for about 1 hour 20 minutes for your answer.
We need movies to escape from life's daily struggles, to be entertained, to have fun, to soul-search but you won't get this HERE.
This is one of those arthouse movies that does not stick to the recognised conventions of storytelling. Don't get me wrong, it's not completely avant-garde to the point of being indigestible.
You will be able to appreciate filmmaker Ho Tzu Nyen's artistic viewpoint as well as grasp his musings about sanity, reality and the human condition. But it's just too self-indulgent a project that it alienates the average film fan.
The wooden, inexperienced acting from the entire cast will also distract you. And the biggest let-down of it all, it drags at a snail's pace.
If you still want to watch a meatier mental hospital movie, check out “One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest”, “Awakenings” and “Girl Interrupted”.
“HERE” is not a film for everyone. It's too slow, too arty-farty for the average cinemagoer, and it's not very entertaining. It pains me to give two stars to a much-hyped, made-in-Singapore film that was recently screened at Cannes Film Festival. But truth be told, I'm not loving it.
- CNA
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