Movie review: ‘Altered Minds’

Director Michael Z. Wechsler, making his feature debut after working in TV and shorts, crafts an appropriately gray and brooding atmosphere in the dysfunctional-family drama Altered Minds.

Judd Hirsch is Dr. Nathaniel Shellner, a renowned psychiatrist who did secret work for the CIA. One of his three adult adopted children, Tommy (Ryan O’Nan, Ray Donovan), is convinced his father performed unspeakable mental experiments on him, though he can’t remember.

The doctor’s three other adult children — two of whom are also adopted — think Tommy is going off the deep end, but evidence begins to pile up to the contrary during a particularly stormy family dinner. Is their father a monster or a man?

If the resolution isn’t quite as satisfying as either the buildup or the performances by the likes of Dexter’s C.S. Lee, it’s still a well-made thriller.

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This story was originally published November 18, 2015 at 1:04 PM with the headline "Movie review: ‘Altered Minds’."