Movies about patients looking for revenge against their therapists have been done several times before mental health became an important thing to watch. Todd has everything you want in the revenge subgenre but lacks everything you need to enjoy it.

Todd starts with an overly dramatic score played through the morning routine of an out-of-place so-called introvert. Immediately we see Todd (Hans Hernke) interact with objects in an aggressive way and with people in an unsympathetic way that certain egocentric overtones are noticed which leave in doubt if the character is actually introverted or believes he’s all that and a bag of chips. We learn that Todd is in therapy for his introverted/egocentric ways and he has inherited a large sum of money from his parents’ tragic death. Todd feels his therapist couldn’t care less about him after several years in treatment but never wonders how to do his part to speed up the healing process. Instead, he decides to stalk a waitress he bumps once by mistake. When nothing works for him because life is unfair and no one is willing to submit to his obsessions, Todd decides to act up as a silver-platter kid and force himself on people to love him and cherish him.

Although the title of the film implies that the focus will be on the title character, in reality it is developed on the interactions, or intermissions, he has on the lives of the people who cross his path. It is much more entertaining to watch the stories of the waitress and the therapist unfold than Todd’s himself; his appearance on screen makes the plot boring and heavy— it may just make you feel better to know the character doesn’t appear that much.

The characters have been developed in the most confusing way possible. For example, let’s take Todd’s treating physician, Dr. Richard Miller (Aaron Jackson), who is tasked with dealing with the minds and emotions of his patients but when it comes to his family it seems that he even requires therapy to treat them better. Now Todd’s character, supposedly an introvert, is terribly developed. As a person who constantly feels depressed and out of place because he feels people and life have treated him badly, he is quite aggressive and arrogant from the beginning with everyone and anything even when he still hasn’t showed any indicators of a psychopathic behavior; it is evident that no one in that production has any idea of how an introvert acts and interacts— call me if you plan to do a remake.  When it comes to the Jackson’s character and the waitress Amy (Laura Stetman) the acting is on point and somehow mellow to digest the film. The only problem I find with Amy’s character is her development as the person who would do whatever it takes to land the role that launches her to fame — that’s troubling.

Todd is the compromising excuse that ties two completely separate stories together and could be more entertaining (and less offensive) if the main character was to be cut— it’s already a leftover between several plots. It presents two very interesting stories that are affected by the forced inclusion of a plot with a lot of room to be developed. Was Todd looking for approval from a society that didn’t care for him because the world doesn’t revolve around anyone or was he in mourning for the loss of his parents? Just like its title character, this movie needs a lot of help to be better and of service to society.

3 OUT OF 10 WATER GLASSES