'The Ninth Configuration' - Movie Review

The movie starts with the arrival of a new psychologist (Stacey Keach) at a hospital for military personnel. The hospital is housed in an abandoned and creepy castle "in the American northwest" (because that makes a lot of sense). The "genius-level" patients are introduced, and we get an hour of farce as we learn their eccentricities - as well as that the new doctor and the old staff aren't entirely grounded either. There are twists and turns to be had as we get into the darker second half, and some of the discussion about suffering and faith that came out in the first half (amongst discussions of Shakespeare for dogs) ties into how the story plays out. There's some interesting stuff in here - for a movie about half the two hour running time, and not delivered with an LSD-covered sledgehammer. It's hard to appreciate when styles in film-making have changed so radically since it was made.