Spiral – AKA, “DAMMIT, I CAN’T TALK TO ANYBODY ABOUT THIS MOVIE!!!”
Really, that kinda explains the whole thing, doesn’t it?
I just finished watching Spiral, a movie from 2007 that was co-written by, and starred, Joel Moore, who also had a role in this unimportant little film nobody ever heard of. If you frequent the art house circuit, you might know about it – Avatar? Yeah, that one, so you did hear about it – cool.
Spiral is nothing like Avatar.
Spiral is a picture into obsession and isolation – a young man (Joel Moore) named Mason, with only one friend in the world and a whole boatload of psychological issues. As an amateur psychiatrist, I’d say the conservative list includes… hmm…
Panic disorder
Generalized anxiety disorder
Chronic depression
Obsessive compulsive disorder
a whole boatload of phobias
and, basically, a partridge that’s not quite up in the top of the pear tree.
Now, he has reasons for this, it turns out. But I can’t talk about it.
He works as a telecommuter – I can talk about that. And he likes jazz (though not smooth jazz – “smooth jazz isn’t jazz”) and painting. He has a job as a telemarketer, working for his one friend in the whole wide world… and yes, ladies and gentlemen, this movie will reaffirm all your convictions that telemarketers really are psychopaths.
He meets a girl at work who takes a shine to him, and they start talking, then going out. Really, having a relationship seems to be doing incredible things for poor Mason. He starts making his sales numbers, is socializing more, cracks jokes, generally starts being a normal person. He sketches Amber (his new girlfriend) and paints her, in all sorts of poses – but there’s a rule. Nobody sees his pieces until they’re done. Eventually… well, you remember the story of Bluebeard, right? And when they do, they go down hill fast. This movie’s called ‘Spiral,’ but this spiral is one that links back up to the beginning after a while.
And while I really, really, REALLY wish I could talk about the ending, I’m not going to do that to you. I’m just going to say this – go watch this movie. If you like psychological thrillers, you owe it to yourself. You can find it at the link below, or streaming on Netflix.
