2002 Great Lakes Independent Film Festival

The Rose Technique

Category: Narrative Feature 1hr 37min 
Director: Jon Scheide

“The Rose Technique” follows Dr. Lillian Rose [JoBeth Williams] through the final days of her strange and tempestuous career.  A budding radio psychologist, Dr. Rose was forced to leave several careers for murky – but unsavory - reasons.  Penniless and moving fast, she relocates to L.A. on the hopes of a new job at a radio station there.  But when she arrives, there is no job.  Frantic, she has to take an adjunct-faculty position at Losthills, a small progressive college.  In the classroom, the ambitious and charismatic Dr. Rose snaps right back to form, conscientiously mining her students for potential clients and devotees.  Buoyed by their obvious adoration, she sees the chance to relaunch her media career.  When her lecture series becomes a high visibility hit, Dr. Rose is on her way.  At last!  She will reach a national audience, and she will heal that audience through her good, good, common sense. After all, life’s not that complicated! When people do what they’re supposed to do, they’re happy.  When they don’t, they’re not.  Is she the only one who sees the obvious link between mental health and moral conduct?

Dr. Rose would never have appointed herself guardian of the public virtue, but neither will she turn away from people who need to be guided back onto the path of decency and emotional responsibility. Consequently, of course, Dr. Rose has to resort to tough love from time to time – to employ some – unorthodox therapies, but only in the cause of deep healing and psychic growth.  That’s what The Rose Technique is all about!  Getting to the Root of the problem, Owning it, Separating out what’s healthy, and Eliminating the deadwood.  Especially Eliminating the deadwood. However, when Dr. Rose carries her technique to its bloody excess, more than the deadwood is eliminated and she is confronted by the humiliating consequences. Will Dr. Rose rise to the task, or succumb to the petty mores of the mundane and conventional society of which she constantly fights to overcome?

Principal Cast:
Jobeth Williams  (The Big Chill, Wyatt Earp, Poltergeist)
Sally Kirkland  (Anna, The Way We Were, JFK, Private Benjamin)
Jason Brooks  (Baywatch, Friends, Doogiehowser MD)
Kari Wuhrer  (Anaconda, The Crossing Guard, Arac Attac)
Leo Rossi  (Analyze This! The Accused, Black Widow)
Peter Jason  (Hunt For Red October, Heartbreak Ridge, 48 Hours)