DANIEL ISN'T REAL (2019)

Studio:      Samuel Goldwyn Films
Director:    Adam Egypt Mortimer
Writer:      Brian DeLeeuw, Adam Egypt Mortimer
Producer:  Daniel Noah, Josh C. Waller, Lisa Whalen, Elijah Wood
Stars:     Miles Robbins, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Sasha Lane, Mary Stuart Masterson, Hannah Marks, Chukwudi Iwuji, Peter McRobbie

Review Score:

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Summary:

A troubled young man’s imaginary friend from childhood returns as an adult eager to indulge in darkly disturbing desires.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

As a young boy, Luke Nightingale witnesses the bloody aftermath of a coffee shop massacre carried out by John Thigpen, a serial killer later dubbed the Brooklyn Heights Gunman. At the same time, Luke seemingly conjures an imaginary friend named Daniel. The two boys become constant companions, often pretending to swordfight with each other while playing.

Daniel shows his dark side when he compels Luke to poison his mother Claire by putting prescription pills in her blender. Claire survives. Deeming it unhealthy to indulge Luke’s fantasy any further, Claire convinces her son to lock Daniel away inside his grandmother’s vintage dollhouse.

Year later, Luke comes home from Vogler University law school to discover his mother is still struggling with her own psychosis. Following a hallucinogenic seizure, Luke discusses his mental troubles with his therapist Dr. Cornelius Braun. Luke tells Dr. Braun about the imaginary friend he enjoyed as a child, but omits the part about Daniel influencing him to kill Claire. Dr. Braun suggests that it might be healthy for Luke to reconnect with that part of his imagination once again.

Luke bumps into aspiring artist Cassie Be as she skateboards in the street. When he returns to his mother’s apartment, Luke unlocks the dollhouse where he imprisoned Daniel.

Luke finds his mother trying to kill herself with scissors during an emotional breakdown. Daniel reappears to talk Luke through calming down Claire. Daniel consoles Luke afterward.

Cassie tracks down Luke to return the wallet he dropped during their first encounter. Daniel talks Luke through a flirtatious interaction with Cassie. Cassie invites Luke to an art opening.

Daniel helps Luke defuse an altercation between Cassie and another person outside a club. At Cassie’s loft afterward, Daniel tells Luke to act out his aggression by therapeutically destroying an art wall with Cassie.

Daniel convinces Luke that he needs to break out of his mental prison in order to live. Daniel promotes Luke’s confidence by helping Luke ace an exam. He also provokes mischievousness by getting Luke to frighten his roommate Richard.

Daniel talks Luke through picking up attractive coed Sophie at a party. Daniel seemingly becomes jealous as Luke and Sophie become physical with each other while drunk. Daniel puts a razorblade in Luke’s hand when he passes out.

Luke continues pursuing a romantic relationship with Cassie. Cassie paints a portrait of Luke depicting him with a distinct shape like a crowned figure standing behind him.

Daniel arranges a cocaine-fueled threesome between Luke, Sophie, and Sophie’s friend Makayla. However, Daniel insists that they remove Luke’s roommate Richard from the picture first. Luke, Sophie, Makayla, and Richard sneak into the steam tunnels underneath campus. Luke ends up alone with Sophie when Makayla reluctantly steps away with Richard.

Daniel convinces Luke that he won’t be cheating on Cassie if he allows Daniel to take over his body while with Sophie. Daniel has aggressive sex with Sophie while possessing Luke. When Richard returns, Daniel beats him up and singes his face on a hot pipe. Horrified by his violence, Sophie breaks a chair over Daniel, which brings Luke back into his body.

Luke tries to make Daniel go away, but Daniel refuses. Claire recognizes something is wrong with Luke when he visits her in a mental institution, but Luke refuses to tell her what it is.

Expelled from school for his assault on Richard, Luke tries to explain himself to Sophie, who refuses to speak to him. Daniel shows Luke a vision of him slitting Sophie’s throat. Sophie maces Luke with pepper spray. Daniel begins sending frightening photos of his transformed face to Cassie.

Luke finally tells his therapist the truth about how Daniel tried to kill Claire as a child. Dr. Braun helps Luke connect Daniel’s first appearance with the Brooklyn Heights Gunman’s coffee shop massacre when Luke was a boy.

Luke goes to see John Thigpen’s father Percy. Luke frantically explains that he was there when John went on his killing spree and fears that his mental issues are similar to John’s. Percy confirms that John had an imaginary friend and tells Luke that John used to calm himself by drawing. Luke discovers that John drew an entity resembling Daniel.

Before Percy can summon the police, Luke hurries to show John’s disturbing sketches to Cassie. Luke demands to know what Cassie saw when she painted the crowned shadow in his portrait, which resembles a frightening figure that haunted John. Cassie grows concerned when Luke goes into a frustrated rage.

Anxious to exorcise Daniel, Luke summons Dr. Braun to his mother’s apartment. Upon hearing Luke’s story in full, the therapist uses Tibetan mysticism to put Luke and himself under hypnosis. Dr. Braun sees Daniel tear open Luke and enter his body. Daniel kills Dr. Braun with a ceremonial dagger.

When he emerges from his trance, Luke sees Daniel take the form of a disfigured demon. Daniel forces Luke to get inside the dollhouse while he takes possession of Luke’s body.

Inside the dollhouse, Luke encounters a demonic figure with a crown-like head. The entity chases Luke into a weapon room where he finds a painting of the demon swallowing a person.

As Luke, Daniel goes to see Cassie. Cassie notices that Daniel is wearing a red suit exactly like the entity depicted in John Thigpen’s drawing. Recognizing the conflict between the two entities, Cassie exclaims that she wants the shadow to go away and leave the true Luke in its place. Daniel tears off Luke’s face and transforms it into his own. Cassie attacks Daniel.

Luke hears Cassie’s encounter with Daniel over an antique phone in the weapon room. Luke mentally conjures a key that he uses to unlock the dollhouse. Before leaving, Luke stabs a deformed creature that is John Thigpen, who was unable to escape himself.

Cassie calls out for Luke as she stabs Daniel. In response, Luke jumps into an abyss that transports him to a rooftop faceoff with Daniel. Cassie climbs down a ladder to safety while Luke and Daniel engage in a swordfight like they used to have as children.

Thinking that he can kill Daniel by killing himself, Luke wrestles Daniel off of the building. Cassie unsuccessfully attempts to revive Luke after he hits the ground below. The crowned demon is seen doing a swan dive into the abyss.

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Review:

It’s ordinary for a little boy like Luke to have an imaginary friend. But Daniel is far from an ordinary imaginary friend.

Stepping out of his troubled household for a bit of a breather, Luke’s eyes inadvertently lap up the awful aftermath of a coffee shop massacre perpetrated by a deranged gunman. That’s when Daniel suddenly appears, apparently conjured by an uneasy mind to help Luke process the crimson carnage.

The two boys quickly become constant companions. For a while, Luke’s mother Claire smilingly placates the pretend sword-fighting and other bits of innocuous make-believe. Then Daniel gets dark. He wants Luke to drug his mother’s drink. Having no reason to believe his best buddy would want him to do something terrible, Luke agrees to play Daniel’s dangerous game.

Claire survives the unwitting attempt on her life, but cannot humor Luke’s fantasy any further. She has her son imagine locking away Daniel in his grandmother’s antique dollhouse, never to be seen or heard from again.

New troubles arise in adulthood. Now in college, Luke suffers from seizures while Claire flirts with her own psychosis. Without knowing the whole history, Luke’s therapist suggests he cope by reopening his imagination, which returns Daniel to Luke’s side.

Things start as innocently as they did the first time. Daniel plays Cyrano to Luke’s Christian, talking the budding law student into picking up a fling at a party as well as a sassy artist met in the street. The further Daniel builds his boy’s confidence, the more daring he gets with his demands. With each mental chain Luke breaks, Daniel grows increasingly sinister. Luke may have freed Daniel from the dollhouse, but Daniel intends to free himself from Luke’s mind.

While discussing the film’s creation following its SXSW premiere, director Adam Egypt Mortimer stressed the importance of perceiving Daniel as a flesh and blood being. “Daniel Isn’t Real” uses the scaffolding of schizophrenia to erect a dark drama following familiar patterns for a possession thriller. But the physical aspect to Luke’s alter ego allows the film to maintain a middle ground between psychological and body horror as it evolves into a distinctly disturbing story.

By giving dimension to Daniel as Luke’s inner demon, Mortimer and co-writer Brian DeLeeuw, upon whose novel “In This Way I Was Saved” the film is based, take a tale centered inside a terrifying mindscape and creatively conceptualize it cinematically. Mortimer drafted a 35-page style guide to convey that vision to the crew, devoting several pages exclusively to using color as well as simulating the hallucinogenic experience of a manic episode. Speaking as a longtime sufferer of clinical depression, I cannot think of anything comparative that has so extraordinarily externalized an introspective struggle through such swirling sights and sharp sounds. The illustrations are so acutely dizzying that “Daniel Isn’t Real” becomes one of the most intriguing visualizations of dueling identities ever imagined. I can’t completely articulate the effect the film had on me mentally other than to say I exited the theater feeling as though I was still swaying from the influence of a hypnotically inebriating spell.

Conflict isn’t only metaphoric in “Daniel Isn’t Real.” Detrimentally, a handful of proportionality issues unbalance atmosphere on occasion.

Most notable is the credibility disparity between the two co-lead performances. Miles Robbins storms the screen as Luke, easily evoking empathy even when his character engages in stereotypical college male behavior that is considerably less endearing in a post-MeToo climate. Robbins retains a firm grip on Luke’s vulnerability to keep the character’s humanity steady despite an emotional roller coaster ride through supernatural and psychological terrors.

One may contend that this intentionally plays into the character’s fabric, but Daniel on the other hand comes across as an overly false personality. Patrick Schwarzenegger drives Daniel with excessive smugness. His nonchalance goes further than the character requires, making for a phony feeling persona that doesn’t match Robbins’ dedication to Luke at the other end. It’s essential for their seesaw to remain level in terms of energetic intensity, yet Daniel truly “isn’t real” in a manner that stems more from performance than from characterization.

Another bump in the movie’s road involves attention paid to Luke’s relationship with Cassie, his artistic equal, versus Luke’s affair with Sophie, a coed whose interest extends only as far as a cocaine-fueled threesome. A necessary evil exists here due to how Daniel convinces Luke he won’t be cheating if he allows Daniel to control Luke’s body while with Sophie. You can’t hit that checkpoint without a setup like this. Still, casual sex with Sophie while courting Cassie lessens Luke’s shine as a sympathetic hero.

Beyond that, too much Sophie means not enough Cassie, and Cassie’s minimized screen time truncates her depth as a meaningful motivator for Luke’s later actions. A rewrite condensing Sophie’s storyline into Cassie’s would have resolved this issue. It also would have put certain stakes into Cassie and Luke’s bond that their romance needs to really read as a critical component.

On a purely narrative plane, “Daniel Isn’t Real” encounters additional potholes such as taking an extended amount of time to reveal the exact nature of the plot and building up to a finale that doesn’t have an explosive payoff. Nevertheless, the movie overwhelmingly succeeds on the strength of its intangible themes and how vividly they are realized.

“Daniel Isn’t Real” tackles topics of duality as well as struggles with self-confidence. It examines challenging questions about how we cope with dark impulses and create false faces to conceal less appealing aspects of our identities. Always at the center of this subtext, “Daniel Isn’t Real” accomplishes its objectives while remaining a mesmeric movie where fairy tale fantasy morphs into chilling cosmic horror.

Review Score: 80

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