The Treatment

When Jake Singer confronted his ex she recommended a shrink, but now he's got one, he appears to be losing his mind.

Jake (Chris Eigeman) is a troubled man, and the last thing he needs is a psychoanalyst, but when Julia (Stephanie March) suggests that he should see someone, he ends up reclining on the rather nice couch of Dr Ernesto Morales (Ian Holm), last of the great Freudians. For a while the relationship seems to work and progress is made, he becomes involved with Allegra Marshall (Famke Janssen) - a recent widow and parent of a pupil in his school - and he finally admits that he misses his long dead mother. However, just when things seem to be looking up, Dr Morales starts to crop up in the strangest places, offering some distinctly unhelpful advice...

The Treatment is a middle class, centre of the road New York story about affluent people and their obligatory romantic and psychological problems with the addition of a slightly weird plot quirk - the character of Dr Morales. The romantic plot between Jake and Allegra is tired; she's the grieving widow with two adopted children and he's the lovable English teacher who really cares about his pupils - especially those from the 'hood. A moment of refreshing sincerity charms him into her life and soon they're deeply in love, but - uh-oh - he makes a false step and tells a well meaning lie that shakes their relationship to its core. Will they get back together? Maybe if his elderly, but wise, father can give him sagelike advice? Do we care?

The addition of Dr Morales is intended to raise this otherwise pedestrian plot above its TV-movie mediocrity, but it never really meshes with the rest of the film. Even when Ian Holm starts to pop out of cupboards and offer sex tips from the bedside, the scenes feel superficial and their effects on the lead's character seem nigh on irrelevant. On a positive note, the John Zorn soundtrack is a very apt; the easygoing jazz sets the scene beautifully and the lead performances are good, even Ian Holm's reprising of the quirky-old-man role from which he seems to be unable to escape.

If you want to see a fairly unchallenging New York story then you could do worse than this, but you'd be much better watching Manhattan or Kissing Jessica Stein, which both tell far more interesting stories about slightly crazy New Yorkers without having to fall back on imaginary psychoanalysts.