Track 29 (1988)

AKA: –
Directed by: Nicolas Roeg
Starring: Theresa Russell (Linda), Gary Oldman (Martin), Christopher Lloyd (Henry), Colleen Camp (Arlanda), Sandra Bernhard (Nurse), Seymour Cassel (Senior doctor)
Country: USA; Effed Up American Movies
Language: English (Optional Eng Subs)
Runtime: 01:30:11

Plot – Spoilers:
Linda’s doctor husband, when he’s not working, is obsessed with toy trains and heads a model-train loving community who heap contempt on those who think they are merely toy train lovers. He also enjoys having his ass spanked by a nurse at the clinic followed by a prostate massage. Linda doesn’t see or understand this side of him and is increasingly frustrated and bored with her bland life that she believes has been made worse by their childlessness. She decks her room with dolls and often tries to seduce him while acting childlike and calling him Daddy. This doesn’t interest him, but it eventually causes a young man from England, Martin, to materialize in her life. Martin claims to be the son she was forced to give up for adoption after being raped as a 15-year-old. Linda has never gotten over the trauma of her baby being snatched away and it is suggested her baby might have actually been the product of rape at home, rather than at the bumper-car fair from her memories. Linda seems to have been struggling with her illness – some kind of identity disorder – for a while, and her husband alludes to it as a reason for their inability to adopt a child. It’s been getting progressively worse though and now there are darker sexual elements involved – her son is playfully lewd with her and she too often horny in his presence.

Track 29 sometimes leaves you wondering about things in it, often boring you to the point of not caring about them. But at other times you do. Like about the dog that trotted onto the bridge in the opening scene. Was this planned, did it happen by chance, was there someone shouting at Gary Oldman to hold his pose or even scare it away?

Genres: Mental Illness, Family, Incest themes