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")

There was no point to this movie. There were bad guys(and girls) and worse bad guys. They were all killers and I think we were supposed to feel bad?? because they are living it up in a comfy mental institution?? The "good guys" are Allen and his new mental gf Mia. He killed 2 people that we know of and caused the death of his friends mom. (he was only convicted of one) And the girlfriend set fire to a building killing a couple of "old people." Possibly if these characters showed any type of remorse it might have made a difference but I doubt it.The only reason we see any humanity in them is because of how bad the other criminals are.Its a waste of time, no point, no character development, stupid soundtrack, and its dark. I don't know what we're supposed to take away from this movie. The only thing I can say is that is well acted for what it is but I can not recommend it.

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 *>)