So much average

Just perfect...

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

** contains spoilers ** "If you shite in the bed and dribble all over yourself, it makes them feel better about themselves."N has received such public services for her entire life and she's a real pro at qualifying for them, at this point. She instructs her new exotic (in this world, completely normal - read, not mentally ill) friend, Poppy Shakespeare, to fill out her application for "Mad Money" (what I've heard called here in the States a "Crazy Check") with her left hand so that it's in scribbles because she made the odd assumption of printing in block letters as the instructions read. Of course, Poppy only needs the money to get an administrative hearing so that she can be released from her outpatient day treatment because she isn't mentally- ill! N (named because everyone occupies one seat in a circle labeled for each letter of the alphabet) can't imagine a life outside of "care," so she works hard to stay in the hospital's treatment program because that's the only life she's ever had. Assessment day (only once a year, of course LOL) takes a week of preparation, as she sleeps in the same clothes for days, spreads chocolate on the back of her pants, and smears cigarette ash under her eyes. She performs for the panel of doctors, in a tutu, who score her with perfect 10.0's and grant another year of care, where she says she can pretty much do whatever she wants. She's so frightened that she will one day be discharged that N makes sure that her doctors know that Poppy was fully satisfied with the job of "guiding" she's done, as her doctor suggested she do.Poppy needs the money to get out of the hospital but, wonder of all wonders she isn't mentally ill enough to qualify for it, even though she's claimed incontinence :-) It's enough to drive her batty with frustration. Now, she's getting truly irate. Which is only a sure sign of her mental distress, eh? LOLI should say that I am a social worker. Yes, I totally get it. And, this is a HILARIOUS movie! What a gem to find amongst a bunch of classics and foreign dramas I have because they are supposed to be entertaining. This dead-pan comedy must be a cult classic at this point, but I haven't investigated the matter yet. It's a masterpiece, as far as I'm concerned.I was laughing so hard, quietly and deep inside, of course ;-) at Poppy's description of how she was brought into the program... she lost her job as an administrative assistant of sorts and went to job testing, which as she got through more and more levels of testing (congratulations!) her answers are found to be "concerning." The next thing she knows, an ambulance arrives at her apartment and takes her to the hospital. Surreal? Deliciously delightful - he he!This gem is packed with Masterpiece Theatre actors who give wonderful performances. The wit is clever and so subtle that it's a thrill to watch, as compared to the general American fare that takes it's self all too seriously and hits you over the head to make sure that you got how serious and important it is. This film is a keeper -- one to watch over and over again.

I saw the advert for this one-off drama, and I was mainly attracted by the two female stars, the programme itself was pretty good too. Basically N (Bleak House's BAFTA winning Anna Maxwell Martin) has been a patient at north London's Dorothy Fish day hospital for 13 years, and she has never thought of leaving. Then she meets glamorous new patient Poppy Shakespeare (28 Days Later and Pirates of the Caribbean star Naomie Harris), an ad agency executive convinced she's not mad and that she has been forced to be there. N is the only person that will listen to her and possibly believe she's right. As they hang out together more, other patients start to doubt believe there is some sort of conspiracy at the hospital as well, when one of them discovers the mirrors are two way, and that the staff know Poppy is sane, but have been examining her for some reason. As you'd expect, there's a point where N and Poppy are parted when Poppy overdoses on some drugs, and N can't eat or sleep till she gets back. But when Poppy does get back, wanting help with her daughter who her ex-husband is planning to take away from her, N doesn't answer the door, and Poppy killed herself. N by the way was found (possibly because of the discovery) cured and allowed to go home, but she manages to get to the truth before being returned to either her old life or the new one outside. Also starring Tessa Peake-Jones as Rhona and Orrianne Laughton as Safra. Good!

Following her mother's suicide, N has been in and out of care most of her life, from foster care, through 'children looked after' services to mental health inpatient and outpatient services. Resolutely determined to remain an outpatient at a mental health day centre, her day-to-day existence is challenged by a new patient, Poppy Shakespeare... whilst all other outpatients are hell-bent on avoiding discharge, Poppy wants nothing else.Skirting the line between stark realism and the heightened, farcical world of, say, Lindsay Anderson, Ross and Williams' film is a roller-coaster ride through a dystopian mental health care system in 21st century Britain. By not being explicit about the reasons for Poppy's apparently enforced attendance at the day centre, the cause and effect of mental illness diagnosis is blurred. By heightening the depiction of the care givers and mental health professionals to exaggerated, satirical degrees, the cycle of discharge-collapse-readmission-rehabilitation is distorted to nightmarish proportions.Naomie Harris is great in the title role, charting the slow, distressing decline of someone determined to fight the system, but at the heart of Poppy Shakespeare lies an astonishing performance by Anna Maxwell Martin as N - she doesn't so much play her as 'be' her, creating a character so utterly believable and compelling that the viewer is both repelled and mesmerized in equal measure as we watch N deftly circumnavigate the system, always to her own advantage, always ensuring she remains within it.Kudos and applause for all involved.

Firstly, I did enjoy this film, it had strong characters and some interesting scenes. However, I've worked in a mental hospital and I can say that where I worked was nothing like that! The patients were supervised a lot more and given much more attention than Poppy , N and the others were given. I suppose it could be argued that it was being portrayed as how the hospital 'felt' to the patients rather than reality, but this is not shown really in the film. It could also be looked at in a Kafka-esquire nightmarish slant on reality, but again , I think that would be reading too much into it. I know it is a film about madness, but it is obvious in it what is real and what is not.Poppy is the character in the film that is supposedly sane, who as been sent to the hospital by accident (like One Flew Over the Cookoo's Nest), and this was another thing that bugged me. How on earth can you do so badly filing in a job application form that you end up in a mental hospital?? This was the reason given in the film and I half expected it to turn out that Poppy WAS mad after all, as it seems such a daft reason!I think the only reason Poppy was in hospital was because the Plot demanded that she was. The modern day NHS simply does not operate like this.And again and again I got a little bit ticked off by the rail road plot that sent this poor woman down a pretty predictable decline into actual madness, until it reached its rather disappointing ending.Still, I don't want to put anyone off as I did actually enjoy this film, but more for the good performances than the plot, which turns the NHS into some sort of ghastly monolithic institution very far away from reality.