THE TREATMENT

Year: 2006
USA: New Yorker Films
Cast: Chris Eigeman, Ian Holm, Famke Janssen, Harris Yulin, Eli Katz, Roger Rees, Tyronne Mitchell Henderson, Blair Brown, Stephanie March, Stephen Lang, Lindsay Johnson, Elizabeth Hubbard
Director: Oren Rudavsky
Country: USA
USA: 86 mins
USA Release Date: 4 May 2007 (Limited Release - New York)


Synopsis

Jake Singer is an anxious young schoolteacher living in New York. He is barely on speaking terms with his father, was recently abandoned by his girlfriend, and is heading for a life of compromise and mediocrity at a prestigious uptown prep school.

Emotionally paralyzed, Jake embarks on a course of psychoanalysis with the maniacal Argentine-Freudian Dr. Ernesto Morales, therapist from hell, who wields his heavily accented sarcasm like a machete. Morales' tactics are worthy of the Spanish Inquisition, and soon Jake is just trying to keep him at a distance while planning his escape.

But when he meets socialite widow Allegra Marshall, Jake finds himself upwardly mobile in the Manhattan of serious money and glamour. Bouncing from Morales's couch to Allegra's bed and back again, Jake finds his whole life taking on the strange unpredictable quality of a therapy session.

Based on Daniel Menaker's novel and adapted for the screen by Daniel Housman and director Oren Rudavsky (Hiding and Seeking), the film version of The Treatment captures all of the wit and mystery of Jake Singer's epic journey through the realms of psychoanalysis and mature love. Set in contemporary New York City, the film was shot completely on location and premiered at the internationally renowned Tribeca Film Festival, where it was awarded Best Film, Made in New York in 2006.