Mad to Be Normal

Seven years after handing back the keys to the Tardis, David Tennant stars as another charismatic doctor in a thought-provoking biography of controversial psychiatrist RD Laing. Author of a key text on schizophrenia, The Divided Self, Laing infamously lived with his patients at the London community centre Kingsley Hall in the 1960s. In this account we find him experimenting with drug-free treatments, save for a brief flirtation with LSD (when he was dubbed "the acid Marxist") and meanwhile, he tries to sustain a steady relationship with his long-suffering American girlfriend (Elisabeth Moss). Although liberties have been taken with the true story, director Robert Mullan draws on his experience making documentaries to bring immediacy and pays special attention to period detail with almost every sepia frame filtered through a blanket of cigarette smoke. Among the residents Gabriel Byrne's Bible-quoting patient adds a touch of menace, offset by Michael Gambon's more comical turn. Tennant is as watchable as ever, resplendent in migraine-inducing psychedelic shirts, walking a fine line between radical visionary and arrogant chancer.