Review: THE SCRIBBLER

It’s no secret that some of us here at FreakSugar found Sin City: A Dame to Kill For a bit underwhelming for a film that announces with all the subtlety of a megaphone that it’s all about mood and clearly defined characterization, albeit mood and characterization that bends toward the campy side. That’s why John Suits’ The Scribbler was a surprising dark horse galloping toward the end of summer movie season’s finish line. The Scribbler pulls off what was clearly one of the goals of this summer’s lackluster Dame with, what I imagine, was a far more modest budget: Using atmosphere and a specific color palette to move and provide insight into both the story and the characters. In a summer movie season that has been riddled with hit (Guardians of the Galaxy) and miss (the aforementioned Dame) comic book film adaptations, the techniques that Suits employs creates a viewing experience that is as unpredictable as the lead character herself.

The Scribbler is based on the graphic novel by Dan Schaffer, who adapted the story for the silver screen. The film follows Suki, a sardonic, rough-around-the-edges woman played by Katie Cassidy of The CW’s Arrow. Suki suffers from multiple personality disorder, which causes our heroine no small amount of world-weariness and concern for her safety and that of those around her. Her fears stem from the most volatile of those personalities referred to as “the Scribbler.” To eliminate both the Scribbler and the other voices that hold her back from living some sort of semblance of a normal life, Suki agrees to check into The Suicide Suites, a monolithic apartment building/halfway house that gives those struggling with psychological disorders to slowly re-acclimatize to and reintegrate with normal life. During her stay, Suki undergoes a therapy known as the Siamese Burn, a procedure intended to burn away the multiple personalities which afflict her, leaving only the principal personality intact. However, when a rash of suspicious suicides occur in the Suites, Suki must both clear her name and ensure that the “real Suki” isn’t being subsumed by the Scribbler.

The film boasts an all-star cast that are more than adept at playing the various off-color personalities inhabiting the Suicide Suites. There’s Cassidy’s turn as Suki as well as Michelle Trachtenberg (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Gossip Girl) playing Goth to such a degree that the actress is barely recognizable; Garret Dillahunt is the ultimate sleazy unrepentant sex-fiend. The characters cut an outline onto the screen, providing such a clearly defined world that acts as a stark contrast to the uncertainty of self that beleaguers Suki. It’s a nice juxtaposition that informs both the people inhabiting Suki’s world and the albatrosses around the necks of her fellow Suite-mates. Those characterizations also serve to make the viewer question whether Suki’s accounts of the events in the Suicide Suites make her the most reliable of narrators, suggesting that her subjective descriptions of the people and events leave out the shades of gray and nuance to the complete story.

And that brings us to what are really the stars of the film: the color palette and sets. Unlike Dame’s heavy-handed use of blacks and whites to hit the viewers in the face with a pseudo-noir sledgehammer, Suits makes use of color to give narrative cues to the story. The muddied hues that hang over the set of the Suicide Suites help to alert the audience to the ambiguity found in both the characters and Suki’s version of events, as well as mirror the psychological states to the halfway house’s residents. Conversely, when there is a clear piece of insight into what is really happening with the string of suicides, the color scheme brightens the screen. Likewise, the imposing building and narrow corridors of the Suicide Suites at times gives the movie an air of claustrophobia that serves to increase the tension and add a gravity to the stakes involved for both Suki and the Suites’ residents.

And this is precisely why The Scribbler succeeds where Sin City: A Dame to Kill For falters: Suits knows that mood isn’t something achieved by splashing colors on a canvas and calling it art, but what those colors reveal about the world and the characters of the story. Just as in psychology and as Suki would probably tell you, nuance is everything.