Notably convincing of its dark material in the setting of a psychiatric ward for teenagers and young adults suffering primarily from anger-related issues and self-destructive behavior, Manic builds from humble sources of power in its low-key but genuine cast, its sun-baked and anti-septic location, and its subjective cinematography. But what carries the film the most is an understanding in its very narrative that the character and situations within can't be guaranteed conventional closure. Even the soundtrack, alternating between ambient scores by Aphex Twin and brash rock and metal, compares the struggle for inner peace in a chaotic world to the the myth of Sisyphus, a telling coda in a story of personal conflict.
In his first real "serious" role, a young Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Lyle, a young man clearly tortured by outside sources but not entirely sympathetic considering his violent behavior. Admitted to the ward after breaking a kid's jaw during a baseball game, he's even further troubled by the inability to relate to the others in the ward: a violent wannabe-gangster who instigates fights, a disturbed gothic girl, a troubled young girl haunted by self-image and sexuality (played distinctly by Zooey Deschanel), and a quiet abused Indian boy. At first his only true connections come from the counselor of the group therapy sessions and from a similarly annoyed young man suffering from self-abuse. In both these connections he's able to see his own problems reflected in both the quieter and the louder cases: the counselor has seen far more pain than him and has a wiser understanding of its behavior, and the other tendencies the other patients relapse into suggest the possibility of never becoming healed. It's a scary and divisive set of realizations, further powered by the few touching moments of hope occasionally divulged, whether in a promise made, a plan for the future, a present, or a game of basketball. Darkness still takes over and threatens to sabotage the genuine promises life has to hold, but its up to Lyle and what he's seen to figure out what he needs in order to save himself. Finding a power of self in that sentiment, there is still hope for him to find the confidence that his past never gave him.
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