Peter Sarsgaard stars as Stanley Milgram, the man who proved human beings are not so inherently good.
But does his movie pass the test?
Sitting in a dark theater while watchingExperimenteris a peculiar exercise.
The latest film from director Michael Almereyda faithfully recreates the infamous obedience tests by Stanley Milgram.
They were simply following orders.
Experimenterdoesnt challenge the tests so much as hint at the underlying life of the man who concocted them.
That doctor is played with a special degree of introverted pomp by Peter Sarsgaard.
In one of the better performances of his career, Sarsgaard is all hunched shoulders and thinly contained frustration.
Being the child of Jewish parents who were almost rounded up by the Nazis tends to have that affect.
These sequences occur in sturdy, grounded environments, which are complemented by the gray lab coats.
However, Milgrams life is perhaps too well-adjusted for such a strange subject.
From the beginning, Sarsgaard frequently breaks the fourth wall to narrate the picture.
Either way, the film consequently lingers in the mind like the distorted reflections from a shattered vanity manner.
And that image is far more interesting than the otherwise unremarkable image we might have gleaned.
Experimenteris now playing at the New York Film Festival and opens on Oct. 16.
Rating:
3 out of 5
