Elyse

2020 • 94 minutes

About this movie

Elyse languidly meanders out of a cold, concrete, designer house mirroring a mausoleum, externalizing the spirit of her dead son, Cody. She returns home disoriented, unwilling to join the family dinner, misconceives the gathering as a threat to her private life, and is unwarrantedly infuriated with her egocentric mother, Goldie, and her devoted husband, Steven. In a psychotic blackout, Elyse commits vehicular manslaughter of her son and his nanny, Julia. Elyse isn't the only victim; her delusional thinking, narcissism, and violence annihilate her husband. Memory and hallucination intertwine to expose a history of trauma, revealing the truth: Elyse is Catatonic and institutionalized in a State Hospital. Elyse's recovery is reliant on the dissolution of her marriage, the restoration of the relationship with her mother, and the mutual absolution with the nanny's daughter, Carmen. It's the care from Dr. Lewis and the unconditional love from her nurse, David, that promise Elyse a new life.