Mirror Me

A 20-something man struggles with dissociative identity disorder in this preposterous standalone from Rosenberg (Embers on the Wind). In 1993, a hysterical Eddie Asher checks himself into the Hudson Valley Psychiatric Hospital, fearing that one of his alternate identities pushed his brother’s fiancée, Lucy Rivkin, to her death on subway tracks in N.Y.C. During his interview with Dr. Richard Montgomery, who specializes in dissociative identity disorder, Eddie loses the ability to speak and begins communicating only through writing. His alter, Pär, steps in to recount Eddie’s lifelong struggles to square his identity as a half-Swedish, half-Black man adopted by a Jewish family. Beginning in childhood, Eddie suffered frequent blackouts. Support from his brother, Robert, helped prevent them, but the blackouts begin again after Robert moves to Washington State. When Robert invites Eddie to meet Lucy, a mutual attraction develops. Then Eddie is introduced to Lucy’s father, a renowned artistic director who mistakes him for a well-known Chicago dancer. Rosenberg alternates between Eddie’s and Pär’s perspectives while Dr. Montgomery gradually gets to the root of Eddie’s disorder. Unfortunately, jumbled timelines and far-fetched reveals tank the proceedings. Melodramatic prose (“He is fearless. She is freedom. They are water”) doesn’t help matters. This misses the mark. Agent: Uwe Stender, Triada US. (Dec.)