Allen Meneric (Nick Stahl) is committed to a psychiatric institution after killing the wrong man for raping his girlfriend. There he deal with violent patients (Dash Mihok and Pruitt Taylor Vince). Once he is allowed into the minimum security section, he meets a beautiful bipolar female inmate Mia (Olivia Wilde). The institution is loose with security, and Dr. Lofton (Shohreh Aghdashloo) in charge refuses to address. Inevitably things go wrong.The story meanders quite a bit. It takes a few detours into the killing, his past while we wait for the action to start. The pace is rather slow and the action doesn't start till the end. Nick Stahl doesn't have enough emotional drama. If this was a character study, they needed to get him to overcome emotional hurdles.

The disturbed Allen Meneric (Nick Stahl ) mistakenly kills an innocent believing that he had raped his girlfriend and is sent to the Northwood Secure Treatment Facility, a psychiatric institution for insane murderers. Allen meets the dangerous inmates Carl Tarses (Dash Mihok) and Ben Marshal (Pruitt Taylor Vince) but after a period, his mental condition is reassessed by Dr. Lofton (Shohreh Aghdashloo) and sent to the Northwood Department of Correction, a minimum security institution.Allen meets the gorgeous bipolar inmate Mia Conlon (Olivia Wilde) and they fall in love with each other. On the day of her birthday, they have a private encounter as part of an experimental program; but they are interrupted by the violent Tarses, who is trying to escape from the institution with Ben."On the Inside" is an original prison movie, with deranged inmates locked in a psychiatric institution and a romance between inmates. Unfortunately the movie has a pointless message, with the stupid tragic conclusion. Allen is a young man that is haunted by the ghost of his older brother and that shows no remorse for killing an innocent man. When he has a meeting with the father of his victim, he is cold and does not show remorse for what he did. However, in the end of the story after falling in love with the bipolar Mia, he finds redemption with his attitude towards Tarses. But the writer and director D.W. Brown destroys what could have been a good low-budget movie of love and redemption. My vote is five.Title (Brazil): "A Instituição" ("The Institution")

Is it an epic masterpiece? No. Is it well and appropriately written? Yes. Is it well acted? Absolutely.OK, some of the back-story is left a little lacking in flashbacks that are extremely short and for the most part lacking in development. But the present is well thought out, follows a natural character progression, and there aren't any unnecessary character trait flips to create artificial drama. The ending is appropriate for the progression of the story. Even the audio is perfectly developed.Basically, this hits the mark on every mark except special effects (which would feel completely tacked on and unnecessary anyway). I don't get why there are so many poor reviews for something very solid!

Well after viewing this only a few minutes ago I'll try to give an outline without being emotionally invested. Great acting from Olivia Wilde and Nick Stahl. The soundtrack was good and the pace was even, as it built the frame around Stahl's character,as to what he actually did or did not do to get him locked in the mental facility. Upon introduction into to Dash Mihok's character Carl, there is an immediate tenseness brought in as they let his evil be well apparent. Of course since O.Wilde is housed in the same facility we can guess there will be some sort of relationship between her and Stahl. Although it wasn't a film with big "thrills" or serious action it did very good keeping my attention, I rarely get emotionally involved but found myself caught up and full of anger at points that I won't mention, I would recommend to anyone, especially those who are looking for some real raw emotion out of a film.Also I need to mention the great job of Pruitt Taylor Vince as he was great as supporting cast. It's freaky how he makes his eyes go back and forth so quickly, I just about blinded myself trying to do it *>)