Angst Takes a Starring Role, and It Hurts

Inspired by their experiences in group therapy, filmmakers Marilyn Freeman and Anne de Marcken gathered eight actresses and worked with them in developing characters so fully that, once their six cameras started rolling, they would feel confident in improvising roles as participants in a 21-week program conducted by an actual therapist (Ruby Martin).

Except for the fact that all eight are overly articulate, their feature film “Group,” which employs a split-screen technique, has an authentic documentary feel to it.

At the end of the supposed 21-week course, we’re left feeling that the women are better for having attempted to face their various demons, that they learned to rise above self-involvement and that, thankfully, they don’t act as if they had undergone some miracle cure.

All this is just fine, but the well-intended “Group” is nevertheless problematic. It’s relentlessly grueling, as therapy can be, and not everyone will be able to see a reason to watch it.

The actresses may have worked up a back story for the women they portray so convincingly, but viewers don’t get enough of that background for the characters to be involving as individuals rather than types. They evolve persuasively, but it’s difficult to shake the awareness that we’re watching actresses portraying women ridden with angst over depressingly familiar family and spousal problems, health issues, loneliness and just plain unhappiness.

“Group” does succeed in evoking the often-painful process people experience in learning to listen to one another and respect differences. One woman announces she’s uncomfortable with gay people; in the window of the gathering place, we see a sign proclaiming that the therapy course will be “queer friendly.”

It’s difficult to connect the unfamiliar actresses with the women they play, but the standout is Pipi, a plump, blue-haired, tattooed punker type played with no-holds-barred gusto by Nomy Lamm, a writer, activist, musician and drag performer.

Lamm is a powerhouse presence with much emotional depth. How much more rewarding it would be to watch a real documentary on Lamm instead of a fictional film that’s all the more a downer because we know all the pain and misery it serves up isn’t the real thing.

Unrated. Times guidelines: blunt language, mature themes.

‘Group’

Carrie Brownstein...Grace

Kari Fillipi...Claire

S. Allen Hall...Tody

Vicki Hollenberg...Violet

Tracy Kirkpatrick...Rachel

Nomy Lamm...Pipi

Ruby Martin...Therapist

Lola Rock ‘n’ Rolla...Rita

Tony Wilkerson...Clansey

Artistic License Films release of a Wovie production. Writers-producers-directors Marilyn Freeman, Anne de Marcken. Co-producer Margery B. Brown. Editor Tim Jenson. Running time: 1 hour, 46 minutes.

Exclusively at Fairfax Cinemas, 7907 Beverly Blvd., L.A., (323) 655-4010.