Film Insomnia Netflix
Tonja Witcraft
Based on the bestseller Insomnia by Sarah Pinborough, the drama follows Vicky's character Emma Averill, a successful career woman who inexplicably stops being able to sleep and must unravel the secrets to her painful past before her insomnia takes her over the edge. The gripping series also stars The Gold star Tom Cullen as Emma's husband Robert.
* Vicky McClure previously played Kate Fleming in the hit BBC series Line Of Duty and has also starred in Trigger Point, Alex Rider, Broadchurch and The Replacement. Vicky shot to fame initially playing Lol in the movie This is England and its sequel series on Channel 4. She has a series about Witchcraft coming to Channel 4 in 2024.
I'm a huge fan of television so I really have found the perfect job, as I've been writing about TV shows, films and interviewing major television, film and sports stars for over 25 years. I'm currently TV Content Director on What's On TV, TV Times, TV and Satellite Week magazines plus Whattowatch.com. I previously worked on Woman and Woman's Own in the 1990s. Outside of work I swim every morning, support Charlton Athletic football club and get nostalgic about TV shows Cagney & Lacey, I Claudius, Dallas and Tenko. I'm totally on top of everything good coming up too.","contributorText":"With contributions from","contributors":["name":"Emma Bullimore","link":"href":"https:\/\/www.whattowatch.com\/author\/emma-bullimore"]}), " -0-10/js/authorBio.js"); } else console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); Nicholas CannonSocial Links NavigationTV Content Director on TV Times, What's On TV and TV & Satellite WeekI'm a huge fan of television so I really have found the perfect job, as I've been writing about TV shows, films and interviewing major television, film and sports stars for over 25 years. I'm currently TV Content Director on What's On TV, TV Times, TV and Satellite Week magazines plus Whattowatch.com. I previously worked on Woman and Woman's Own in the 1990s. Outside of work I swim every morning, support Charlton Athletic football club and get nostalgic about TV shows Cagney & Lacey, I Claudius, Dallas and Tenko. I'm totally on top of everything good coming up too.
Now here is a chance to read a synopsis and review of Hypnotic and also a chance for me, as a clinical hypnotherapist to talk about how realistic the movie is and whether the things that happen could happen for real.
We open on a scared woman in an office calling a detective and asking for help. She leaves a message on his answerphone as he is unavailable. She takes the lift and whilst in it her phone rings and someone says some words to her that trigger a panic attack as she feels the lift closing in on her and crushing her. Clearly someone has planted something in her mind and now she is living a nightmare. Knowing this is a movie about hypnotism we doubt that this is happening for real. It feels like perhaps this is all in her mind.
After the title card Jen meets a doctor called Colin Meade who is a therapist. He tells her that he follows the rules 99 per cent of the time, maybe 95 per cent. Let's face it that is already quite creepy and inappropriate even if he is trying to flirt!
We find out that Jen is a software engineer. At the end of the party he gives her his card...in case she is interested. So far perhaps he is just a creepy flirt. We also see that Jenny had split up with her ex Brian, who was also at the party and that he missed her a lot. He offers her a ride home and in the next seen we see that she has spent the night with him and regrets it.
When she enters he is feeding his fish. He tells her he finds them calming and their session begins. In the background of his office is a clock with a pendulum that swings back and forth. Hypnosis is often shown as something where a swinging pendulum can hypnotise you.
Meade says let me help you...and proceeds to use hypnosis on her. He uses a real method where he helps her to relax each part of her body at a time, we use this in hypnosis or you may have even used this as a meditation where you body scan. It happens much quicker, although this is s film of course.
Do you forget what happens in hypnosis? Well you are not asleep you are normally aware of what is being said. Your mind may wander, and sometimes people fall asleep. It is common that people lose track of time, but not so common that you would have no idea at all about what is happening.
Time moves on and it seems that Jen has now had a few sessions with Dr Meade. She has told him that she lost a child a while back and when she spots people with children she notices them more than she did before.
She bumps into the Dr whilst out and about and he takes her for a drink. This isn't something any therapist would be, or should be doing, he would and should have explained this to her. It is crossing boundaries, so the fact he is doing it is yet more evidence that he is not on the level.
Her phone rings with a call from an unknown caller and when she answers she zones out and wakes up at dinner. She hears a ticking clock and then she hears choking. She finds Brian in the bathroom choking and having a fit. She manages to get his epi pen in time to call for help. What has happened? How did she get there? She can remember nothing.
Again, we move into the territory of things that just don't happen like that. If she had passed out then someone would have found her. But she somehow went home cooked dinner and remembers nothing of this. I can't see anyone under hypnosis using an over or hob without burning themselves or the dinner! It cannot happen like this. Which is good news if you are worried about it!
We see Jennifer in Dr. Meade's office again where he is berating her for not doing the work. His tone is creepy and controlling and as time goes on this film is just getting more ridiculous! He is coming across as deranged and yet noone seems to have noticed. I am starting to find this much funnier than I was expecting. It's becoming more ridiculous, by the minute.
Off she pops to the internet where she finds out that Collin Meade ( I am still not sure if he is a one or two L Colin!) has been involved in a lot of weird cases where the police were involved. She runs a background check which shows that he is almost a ghost.
Anyway, off they pop to see a policeman who tells us that the lady in the elevator died after lots of things that are strangely similar to what is happening to Jen. She decided to go visit Dr. Meade again and record what happens. What could go wrong?!
He hypnotises her again. The strange bit now is that she could really just resist anything that he tries, you can't just hypnotise people and make them do things. If she didn't want to listen and just blocked him out then nothing would have happened.
As she leaves she starts to listen to the recording. She hears him asking her questions about why she was there. He asks her about if she is recording him and she tells him that she knows about Andrea Bowen and he knows that she was at the police station with her friend Gina.
The detective arrives and tells him that Gina has died in an accident. He was working with her on her fear of spiders. It was interesting that the detective just turned up for a chat when clearly...this man is doing some pretty bad stuff. But hey, we are all in on this movie now.
Hmmmm, now the doctor is offering to hypnotise the detective to help with his insomnia. He declines, phew! Actually Hypnotherapy is great for insomnia, it is how I first came to hypnosis myself many years ago and I sleep like a log.
Off the detective pops and ooh it's the doctor pushing his way into her house and telling her to keep doing what he says. Hold on, how did the detective miss him! The more this film goes crazy the more coffee I am needing just to keep me awake.
Now there is a strange creaking noise in the detective's house. He is just trying to watch tv and like any off duty detective he is watching a crime show. Oh looks like a patient of the doctor has broken in and is trying to kill him with a knife. He fights her off but even when he ends up in the hospital he doesn't want to bring anyone else in on the case. ALARM BELLS AGAIN!!!
Jen decides to go to a police hypnotherapist suggested by the detective. Why is she not going anywhere else for help? Down the hall Brian, her ex is still in a coma. Lucky they were in the same part of the hospital.
Next, we see Jen at the police hypnotherapist who tells her in the wrong hands hypnosis can be dangerous. I think the wrong hands means a psychopath who kills people. In those hands anything can be dangerous. She also uses a ticking metronome to hypnotise Jen.
She asks her to recall all that happened in the sessions and Jen sinks deep on the sofa. She tries to wake her but is unable. If someone is hypnotised and you shook them they would come back to the room as they are simply very relaxed. Not Jen though, until a big flashback.
Anyway, after some more research she finds out about the CIA doing hypnosis experiments. This is true they did try this. I think they found that trying to hypnotise people to do murders doesn't work though. You can't make anyone do something that they do not want to do.
Jen decided to go visit Mr Sullivan, a man who was involved in all of this. When she arrives she goes on in, like you do! Oh dear, turns out that it was Dr. Meade's father!! He puts her straight to sleep. She probably could have just run off, but hey things are preposterous still.
She comes round in his office and calls the detective. HELP she says and he is on his way. The police arrive and get ready to storm his office. They are all getting ready to run in. We are clearly all recalling all the films where this happens. There is no way they are all in the wrong place! They will burst in at any time. It's not like he would have a replica office in his home. They burst into the office. He has a replica office in his home. Yep, we worked that out ages ago! There are few surprises in this film. More coffee needed.
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