Ollie Kepler's Expanding Purple World

Mental illness in movies is so often depicted glibly, so it's a shame that a film that attempts to explore its paralysing effects with seriousness and sensitivity rather loses its balance. Edward Hogg certainly gives an impressive performance as a web designer who slips beyond mere grief after his girlfriend (Jodie Whittaker) dies suddenly, but because his condition is so internalised, it's hard to feel anything other than bemused concern for him. No medical explanation is offered for Hogg's ills (indeed, the one intervention by a doctor is contrived and clumsy), and his capricious actions and breathless meanderings about the mechanics of the universe only serve to make him more immersed and remote. Writer/director Viv Fongenie works hard to assess the impact of schizophrenia on sufferers and those around them, but any claims that this movie is Donnie Darko meets Billy Liar are well wide of the mark.