Let me just start by saying that Healed, directed by Meghan Weinstein, should have been thrown into the trash, if not for the last fifteen minutes. I mean, it’s not that the climax saves it from being anything less than a disaster; just that it makes the whole thing less problematic. If you are as unfortunate as I was to witness this thing and feel sick afterwards, then I hope this article makes you feel a little better, or maybe, I should say, healed.
Spoilers Ahead
Plot Summary: What Happens In The Movie?
Jasmine, aka “Jazz,” and Olivia are a happily married couple expecting their first child. It takes just a random phone call for us to realize Olivia’s rich white father is not too fond of the fact that his daughter is in a homosexual relationship, although Olivia still tries to be a daddy’s girl. So anyway, Jazz and Olivia are going to one of those special retreat kind of things, which are supposed to cleanse you and so and so. Jazz is not particularly excited about it, but she’s doing it for the sake of Olivia. Of course, Jazz was right, as we all know—these retreats are never good news.
What Happens At The Retreat?
Here’s the thing: movies like Healed always rely on one big twist. Everything seems quite normal—in fact, a little extra normal. But if you’ve had enough experience, you know for a fact that something sinister is definitely going on. Now, these movies often turn out to be rewarding experiences for the viewers because everybody likes to be surprised. However, that’s not the case with Healed, as it doesn’t take much time for us to figure out what’s really going on. And that’s where the bigger problem lies. The retreat is run by this creepy woman, Georgia, and what she’s trying to do is turn gay people straight. Considering homophobia is very much at large all over the world, that’s not surprising at all. A lot of people, especially Boomers, still believe that it’s actually a choice. Hell, even many people in my generation fail to accept it. So Olivia’s father hatching an elaborate plan to turn her daughter into a straight woman, which will eventually make her marry a man, is not unbelievable. It’s obviously ludicrous and very funny. And Healed could have worked if it had tried to focus on that aspect instead of trying to be a regular psychological thriller. But not everyone can do a Jordan Peele, I guess if you know what I mean.
How Does Georgia Try To Create A Rift Between The Couple?
Yeah, I thought about phrasing the question as “How does Georgia try to make Jazz and Olivia straight?” but even the thought of that felt stupid. Anyway, you’re a fool if you expected anything original from Healed. So the movie basically tries to do a Black Mirror from wish.com by infusing a heavy amount of technology into the fold. There’s an app that is also titled Healed, designed by none other than Georgia herself, and that’s all that’s needed to hypnotize gay people and convince them that life is great for straight people. However, that’s not the only thing Georgia relies on. For the sake of some authenticity, and also taking the running length to more than ninety minutes, Georgia employs some other basic techniques of hypnotism, including strobe lights and stuff. One interesting thing she does is put this guy, Kevin, into the mix, who would appear as Jazz and Olivia’s savior whenever they’re in some sort of danger—that is orchestrated by Georgia, not to mention. The dangers are nothing but cars breaking down and creepy men attacking, but I guess that’s good enough to prove the “worth” of men as saviors.
How Does Jazz Save The Day?
Throughout the movie, it’s been established that Jazz has a lot of self-doubt over her ability to protect Olivia. This stemmed from her tumultuous relationship with her musician father, who used to be both alcoholic and abusive. It only comes out during the climax, but the daddy issue being the root of all problems was evident from the start. There was a point where I was actually thinking that the movie might actually end up giving into the ludicrous prejudice, which would have been hella problematic, to say the least. Thankfully, Healed was at least smart enough to pull the plug at the right time. It was always supposed to be Jazz coming to her senses and figuring out what Georgia was doing all along. She was skeptical from the very beginning, but Olivia got too much into it thanks to her pregnancy stress. So Jazz had to play along and suffer for the sake of her wife. And Georgia successfully managed to pull Olivia away from Jazz and do the full brainwashing. There is a brief moment when Olivia sees how miserable Jazz is and immediately decides to leave. But she has gone too deep into the hypnotized state by then, unfortunately.
Thankfully, though, all Jazz needed was a certain trigger to break out of Georgia’s spell. And as fate would have it- that was presented to her by Georgia herself when she casually utters a certain thing that only Olivia says to Jazz. The only satisfying moment of Healed has to be Kevin getting bashed by Jazz after she figures out what he was up to. Realizing technology is the only way to revert the hypnosis and bring Olivia back to her senses, Jazz uses Georgia’s computer, which does the trick. Olivia, who was already on her way to her father’s, returns and takes care of Georgia.
We do get a cinematic sequence where Olivia and Jazz get away in the car, all battered and bloody, but now stronger than ever. That was the only possible way for this movie to end. In able hands, this story could have been something, but sadly, that didn’t happen for Healed. I can’t wait to forget the entire experience, and I bet it’s the same for y’all as well.
