The film follows the events of Nellie Bly (Christine Ricci), an ambitious reporter with a soft spot for those in unfortunate circumstances. She has been committed to the Women’s Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island in New York (present day Roosevelt Island) ostensibly for being insane. She has no memory of her past before the committal, just her life after receiving treatments from the Matron of the Asylum, Grady (Judith Light). While there, she is horrified by the mistreatment of the women by the staff, including several of the women who don’t appear to be insane at all. Her only allies inside are Doctor Josiah (Josh Bowman), a man who recently transferred from England, and Nurse Fenton (Nikki Duval), a new attendant who seems horrified at the brutality around her but unable to do anything about it lest she lose her position.
Nellie butts heads with Grady throughout the story, often getting Josiah involved to intervene, but these moments only lead to conflicts with the Matron who always has a reason ready to explain away her cruel policies. One such incident ends with one of the inmates, Lottie, setting herself on fire as the nurses and Grady refuse to do anything to save her. Eventually it comes out that Bly has gone undercover as a reporter to expose the harsh realities of the insides of asylums. Her amnesia however was real, a byproduct of her treatments by Grady after it was discovered who Bly really was. The doctor is exposed for grooming young women in his care and he, and Grady, are removed from their positions in the asylum. Bly’s story also sheds light on the conditions in these asylums and leads to sweeping reforms that benefit inmates to this day.
For a Lifetime movie, this film hits pretty hard at times. Make no bones about it, though, it has to pull its punches to get on the channel in the first place. It does, however, get its point across without being too graphic. The treatment of the girls is terrible, but at times it feels a bit muted thanks to the constraints of the network. The most horrific scene, Lottie setting herself on fire, is effective and, surprisingly, mostly on screen. The effect is dodgy but at least it doesn’t rely on cutting away to the expressions of the witnesses to sell it. Josiah, whose alternative method for dealing with a made-up lice infection amongst the girls, is directly responsible for the situation that caused this tragedy; you can see on his face the realization of what he has done. Likewise, Bly is devastated that her intervention in this case lead to Lottie’s death.
Ricci sells the woman in peril here. She is good at these kind of troubled characters and this is no exception. Where she stumbles is in the bold and determined reporter scenes late in the film. She’s not very good at playing that assertive, the type of woman who could stop Joseph Pulitzer in the street and convince him to back her idea to infiltrate the asylum. This isn’t a one note performance, though. There is plenty of nuance to her character throughout the film. It’s those few scenes where she’s supposed to appear strong willed and persuasive that fall flat. This also fails when she is finally free to go and is saying her goodbyes to the women she’s leaving behind. It’s okay, but not up to the same level as the rest of the film.
The film struggles with shedding the clichés of the genre, too. There is no time given to flesh out Matron Grady. She’s as generic as it comes, spouting religious sayings and offering prayers at meals but has no shred of humanity to her character. There’s a dropped line about her hard childhood that’s made her this way but it comes out of nowhere and only reminds us of how little development we get with her. This is no Nurse Ratched. There is no subtlety to this character. Likewise her main nurse, Nurse Grupe (Sharon Bajer), seems intent on beating the women she’s in charge of for the littlest of offenses. We get only a peek at her humanity at the very end but it’s too little too late.
This is a frustrating film. On the one hand it brings to light a very real story in the history of the US and what one woman managed to do to make a change happen. On the other it isn’t well written and falls into the trappings of many movies with a similar setting. Even the seemingly sympathetic characters turn out to be antagonists to Bly by the end giving us no other main characters to get behind. This can serve the purpose of boosting our suspense. Unfortunately it doesn’t quite work out that way. The confusing narrative around her amnesia and how that even came to be (or even if it is really a thing or just part of her cover) makes following the narrative a challenge at times. The briskness of the pacing also leaves no real time to delve into the nuances of any of the characters making them all caricatures, too.
In the end what we have here is an above average made-for-tv movie that tries to tell a story best left for the big screen where the true horrors can be explored. A longer runtime or a tighter script would have allowed better character development, too. Without those things, this film still manages to convey its message fairly well but in a muted way that will leave many people frustrated with what could have been. Still, it’s not a bad film. It gives us the basics. It also mentions just before the credits the results of Bly’s exposé as well as the book she wrote after the events. If nothing else, it may inspire some to track down that book and get a more fulfilling account of those events depicted here.
Release Date: January 19, 2019
Running Time: 88 Minutes
Rated TV-14
Starring: Christina Ricci, Judith Light, Josh Bowman and Nikki Duval
Directed By: Karen Moncrieff
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