Bloody Wednesday

This is rather an odd tale of a guy who has severe mental problems. Based on a true story, it documents his decline from being the best mechanic at a garage to complete nutcase who sees delusions all day long and imagines voices in his head. Unable to cope with the stress of slowly losing his sanity and being alienated by everyone around him, he walks into a coffee shop one day and promptly blows 36 people away. The films attempts to explain how he got in that state in the first place.

For utter strangeness this movie is hard to beat. In the big build up to the events at the end, our deranged protagonist amongst other things: Has conversations with his squeaky-voiced homicidal teddy-bear about who to kill next, is attacked by noisy hissing snakes while in bed, plays Russian Roulette with a trio of toughs who try to beat him up, walks into a church service singing Hallejuah wearing nothing but a Bible over his privates and opens up what he thinks is a suitcase full of diamonds only to find.. well, watch it, and you'll see for yourself.

A surreal experience indeed, but not an unpleasant one. It is funny on more than one occasion (mainly due to other character's reactions to our hero's bizarre behaviour) and is strengthened by a brilliantly loopy leading performance by Raymond Elendorf. You can't help but feel for him, as his cries for help are ignored and when his lady psychiatrist is constantly rebuffed in her attempts to aid him by her uncaring colleagues. Perhaps if they'd been less worried about being sued than human life, this tragedy would never have happened.

Some elements of the plot don't add up (like how he is given the machine gun which was responsible for the massacre) and the depiction of mental illness is a bit far-fetched to say the least. Overall though, this is a very interesting watch if nothing else and well worth the quid I paid for it. 5/10