At their favourite restaurant, the handsome local cop, Scott (James Marsden) has planned to propose to his gal, Alice Eckel (Jessica Biel), a waitress at a local 50s themed diner. But after an accident with a nail gun, Alice is left with a nail embedded in the top of her skull and into her brain. It turns out that she is doesn't have medical cover and must live with the nail in her head, which alters her moods from manic to depressed and nymphomania. Scott eventually breaks up with her, but inspired by an advert on TV, Alice goes to Washington DC to lobby a young and ambitious junior congressman (Jake Gyllenhaal) to help fight for broadening medicaid and free healthcare for all Americans.
As well intentioned as this film is to provide a biting satire on the healthcare system in America, the end result is a hot mess. And that would be an understatement, even for such a quirky director as David O. Russell (who here has probably wisely changed his name to Stephen Greene). Russell had previously made such interesting satires as THREE KINGS (1999), I HEART HUCKABEES (2004) and AMERICAN HUSTLE (2013). Shooting for this film began in 2008, was left incomplete until 2013 when it was shelved and then completed and released in 2015 and the time it took to make perhaps goes someway to explain the mess. It does make you wonder - could she just not have sued the restaurant for damages?
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