PEEPHOLE is a shallow character study of a deeply disturbed psychiatrist that aspires to be a compelling thriller. Passingly intriguing, it's pointless and irritating overall.
A prison psychiatrist (Patrick Husted) is asked by the District Attorney (Kiki Huygelen) to do whatever is necessary to find a reason to keep Rick (Rick Dean) in custody. Rick, imprisoned for committing a sex crime against a little girl, is to be released in three weeks, but is obviously crazy.
One night, the doctor goes to see Rick's girlfriend Sheena (Kristen Trucksess), a prostitute who works in a strip club, but she has no helpful information. The next morning, a detective (William Dennis Hunt) comes to the doctor and informs him that Sheena has charged him with assault. That night,
the doctor finds Sheena, and they establish some sort of relationship. He rents a house for her, and over the next few weeks spends a lot of time there having sex and videotaping Sheena with her clients.
Some time after he is released, Rick comes to the doctor very frustrated and disturbed because he can't locate Sheena. Soon after, the detective takes the doctor to see the body of a little girl who has been found murdered. Then the doctor takes Rick to Sheena, and then to see the corpse. He
knocks Rick out and leaves him there. Rick is convicted of the murder and sentenced to death. In the end, the detective tells the doctor that he knows the truth--the doctor is the murderer--but will stay silent. It is implied that the detective has been manipulating the doctor all along.
Writer-director Shem Bitterman adapted PEEPHOLE for the screen from his original play, and he obviously loves David Mamet. His characters defensively talk around each other in an imitation of Mamet's terse style--deliberately clipping their phrases, carefully pausing, guarding their words.
Bitterman never wants to cut away from his precious dialogue, so his long takes are filled with tricks--focus changes, 360-degree camera moves, unusual lighting, and odd staging--bordering on overkill. PEEPHOLE's story is purposely ambiguous, but approaches incoherence. No motivation or
characterization is offered beyond the hastily sketched psychopathology of each character. The result is an arty, forgettable cipher. (Nudity, sexual situations, profanity.) leave a comment
