Mad Love

Author(s): D.W. Dillon
Location: Las Vegas, NV

"Mad Love"

Directed by David Fincher
Written by Shane Black and Paul Dini
Based on the graphic novel by Paul Dini
Music by Howard Shore

Main Cast

James Spader as "Red" Joe Kerr
Melissa George as Arleen Chino
Liev Schreiber as Det. Simon Trent
Powers Boothe as Capt. Worthington
Anabella Sciorra as Veronica Trent
Arleen Sorkin as Jaclyn Kerr
and
Maximilian Shell as Dr. Amadeus

Tagline: "Evil needs love, too"

Synopsis: This is a love story...

From the dark depths of the dripping wet and dingy Amadeus Asylum lies a vicious species of incomprehensible means, one "Red" Joseph Kerr (James Spader). A failed stand-up comedian, with a temper not fitting of a comedian's sensibility. He, who turned to crime after his mentally unstable wife (Arleen Sorkin) fell victim to suicide, under the watch of criminal psychologist pioneer and founder of Amadeus Asylum, Dr. Archibald Amadeus (Maximilian Shell). Kerr's new lust for revenge and aptitude for apathy turned him into a cold-blooded killer. After years of toying with the police (Powers Boothe), he had met his match in Det. Simon Trent (Liev Schreiber), who's pension for thinking outside of the box, placed Kerr in his own box at Amadeus Asylum.

Though he would fail in saving the mind of Kerr's wife, Dr. Amadeus would devote his life to try and save the demented Joe Kerr. But Kerr's one-tracked revenge-laden psyche seeks only one thing...the death of his doctor. Only the Doctor's failed attempts at saving someone who doesn't want to be saved leaves him at a lost. Until a bright-eyed and bubbly college student walks into his life, Ms. Arleen Chino (Melissa George). Interning at the asylum under the guidance of her mentor Dr. Amadeus, Arleen would take a stab at trying to figure out the mind of "Red" Joe Kerr and help ease not only her mentor's anguish but her new patient's as well. After only a few interviews with the psychopathic Kerr, she finds herself interviewed on the couch, falling in love, and under his spell. Through physical abuse, mind manipulation, and unrequited love, Arleen enters a love/hate relationship that Kerr will use to exact his vengeance upon society from behind bars. Meanwhile Det. Trent finds himself frazzled, puzzled and enraged when clues to his now-hospitalized wife's (Anabella Sciorra) mugging leads to the incarcerated Kerr. After dirty deeds done in the name of "love", Arleen conjures up a new plan to appease her "true love" once and for all...the death of Dr. Amadeus. Will the mind of Kerr allow her the privledge of committing the one act only he himself desperately aspires to? Will the saddened detective figure out Kerr's sick mind in time to save Dr. Amadeus? Will Arleen break the spell of love that has ruined her life and mind before she sheds any more blood?

What the Press would say:

Director, David Fincher charters into rough terrain as he tackles an adaptation like no one has ever done before. Based on the award-winning graphic novel by Paul Dini, and written for the screen by comedic-noir extraordinaire, Shane Black, David Fincher puts together a demented love story that many can relate to. This is a thriller, not about murder or violence and action, but about the power that love casts over us when we fall for the wrong person. Playing the used and abused, the loved and the doe-eyed is Melissa George. Through these railways of emotions, she is able to conjure up the beautiful and timid and transform into the vivacious wild one. At the epicenter of this transformation is James Spader's Joe Kerr. Undergoing a massive character change himself, we see a bow-tied eraserhead of a bad comedian turn into a maniacal and sarcastic spike-haired murderer. Where they have fallen in society, they are brought back to life within eachother and their love knows no bounds. Is it really love that these two weak-willed souls aspire to, or is it the beast within trying to get out? They are brought together by a shell of a man in Dr. Amadeus played by the German screen legend, Maximilian Shell. His portrayal of a famed doctor who's one failed patient, Joe Kerr's wife, played by the maddening delightful Arleen Sorkin, turned her husband into a psychopathic criminal. Shell plays the battered brilliant man who's neverending struggle to find the good inside the two love birds knows no end, just like their madness. He's the core and the instigator. A look inside the criminal mind and how they got there is brilliant way to display these antagonists as protagonists with the do-gooder cop as their foil. And to think a story like this was developed from a Batman comic book. If the academy knew what was good for them, they would nominate the most original adaptation ever written.

Best Picture
Best Director - David Fincher
Best Actor - James Spader
Best Actress - Melissa George
Best Supporting Actor - Maximilian Shell
Best Supporting Actress - Arleen Sorkin
Best Adapted Screenplay - Shane Black & Paul Dini
Best Cinematography - Jeff Cronenweth (Fight Club)
Best Editing - James Haygood (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind)
Best Score - Howard Shore (Se7en)
Best Costume Design - Milena Canonero (Dick Tracy)
Best Art Direction - Richard Hobbs (Dark City)