In Jessica Jones we saw David Tennant do all sorts of crazy things to mess with her head. Now we’re going to see him go to some unusual lengths to try and help people with mental illness in Mad to be Normal, in which plays real life psychiatrist R.D. Liang, a controversial figure who used LSD as and other psychedelic drugs as part of his treatment.
Directed by Robert Mullan, the film explores Liang’s wild life as London’s most famous (and infamous) doctor. The Scottish psychiatrist opened a “safe haven” for schizophrenic patients at Kingsley Hall, where his anti-psychiatry, medicine-free treatments, which often included experimentation with LSD, made him an enemy to the medical establishment. Elisabeth Moss plays his lover, a fictional character created for this story. Here’s the official synopsis:
There was no more charismatic or controversial a figure during the swinging ’60s than Scottish psychiatrist R D Laing. Dubbed “the white Martin Luther King” and the “high priest of anti-psychiatry”, Laing was as famous as Dylan. In 1965, he established Kingsley Hall in East London as a medication-free community for those seriously affected by schizophrenia. His methods, which involved experimenting with LSD on his patients and practicing a form of self-healing known as metanoia, flew in the face of a medical establishment that considered Laing a dangerous radical. Mad To Be Normal offers a powerful account of Laing’s Kingsley Hall experiment with a stunning performance from David Tennant that truly gets under the skin of an utterly compelling figure. Tennant’s nuanced, complex work conveys a sense of Laing’s immense personal charm and the combination of intelligence and arrogance that made him equally revered and reviled. The film also captures the darker side of a mercurial man who rarely made it easy for those who dared to get close to him, especially his lover Angie (Elisabeth Moss). A magnificent ensemble cast includes heartrending performances from Michael Gambon and Gabriel Byrne.
Mad to be Normal hits VOD on February 16th.
