Laura’s Rating: 2/5 Stars
This 1980 film stars William Hurt, Blair Brown, and Bob Balaban. It is based on a book of the same name by Paddy Chayefsky, however the writer left the film after several disputes with director Ken Russell. The movie feels very much like a product of its time, with the special effects looking pretty dated.
The Analysis:
Dr. Edward Jessup is a psychopathologist who begins to believe that there may be other states of consciousness that exist as their own reality. He starts experimenting with sensory deprivation but his research takes a back seat when he meets his future wife, Emily, at a party. After years of being a family man, Jessup returns to his quest, this time going to Mexico to participate in a ceremony where members of a tribe experience shared hallucinations. Jessup brings back a drug that he believes will help him access a shared state that existed at the very beginning of man. Once he begins controversial experiments to reach this first moment of consciousness, Emily may be the only one that can stop him from losing a grasp on his current reality.
I struggled to even rate this movie because it is so bizarre. To me, Altered States almost feels like two separate films. There is a full storyline occurring in a familiar reality, with Jessup struggling to balance career aspirations with his family and deteriorating marriage. Interwoven with this plot are scenes of psychedelic drug trips and philosophical explorations that feel like their own movie.
If you are looking for something totally different from mainstream movies or want something to ponder afterwards, you may find Altered States interesting. I did find the concept of an earlier consciousness unique and thought provoking, but the movie as a whole didn’t quite work for me so I wouldn’t recommend it to most people.
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