Like Minds is a psychological drama/thriller that started as a research project for writer-director Gregory Read. Always fascinated by the notion of what makes people tick and how people construct their own reality, Read became intrigued by ‘what it takes to create someone like a Ted Bundy (the notorious American serial killer). What were they like before they became killers? What were they like at 12 or 13 years old – or 17?’

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Thus began his research for what was supposed to be a documentary feature which turned into a featured film instead.

Like Minds: A Short Synopsis

Seventeen-year-old Alex Forbes (Eddie Redmayne) is placed in a juvenile remand centre after he is charged with the shotgun death of his schoolmate Nigel Colby (Tom Sturridge). With mounting pressure from Alex’s influential father (Patrick Malahide) to have the murder charges dropped. Detective McKenzie (Richard Roxburgh) appoints forensic psychologist Sally Rowe (Toni Collette) to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to find Alex culpable.

Sally begins to unravel the truth behind Nigel’s death.

How it All Began: Research into the minds of young Psychopaths.

Read began researching the subject as a documentary but switched when a film sales agent suggested a feature film might better suit the material. This is how, in the mid-nineties, Read found himself on an enticingly arcane reading trail from the medieval history that was to pervade his lead character’s imaginations and the world of his film to-be, to contemporary psychology and forensics.

From the outset, Read was struck by the discovery that the majority of psychopaths are latent, never kill, and often appear deceptively ‘normal’. Read explains, ‘There is a big misconception about psychopaths. The majority of psychopaths are not killers at all. They are out there functioning in society, maybe in a very dysfunctional way but still, they are not necessarily dangerous. I thought, what happens if we put two potentially ‘normal’ psychopaths together in a close environment. Could they trigger something in each other?’

With this in mind Read made his two leads, English public schoolboys Alex and Nigel, two adolescent psychopaths who are forced to share a boarding school bedroom, and who, despite initial displeasure in each other’s company, come to unite in lethal ways. ‘To make the mix more potentially explosive I wrote them as very different types of psychopath, one obsessive, dark and morose (Nigel) and the other as intellectual, academic and more outgoing (Alex), making Alex the character which the audience could empathise with.’

In the meeting of the two, another element of Read’s research gave the story a dynamic twist: Gestalt psychology: ‘Gestalt means that the whole is bigger than the sum of the parts. It is usually used in psychology for the good, not the bad, when groups of people come together to create something bigger. But when psychopaths come together, they may create something unwanted. Two people who are pretty well incapable of doing it by themselves, between the two of them, one manipulating the other, suddenly find themselves able to kill.’

Read sees the dark synergy between Alex and Nigel as a kind of metaphorical variation or twist on the Frankenstein story, ‘I’ve always been a great lover of the myths and old stories. When I started writing the script I could see that Alex and Nigel were building something bigger than themselves: a kind of Frankenstein. Alex triggers in Nigel this creature, this monster that was pretty well bent on destroying everything around him. Without Alex I don’t believe Nigel would have ever gone on to hurt anybody.’

Conscious that psychopaths tend to be defined by their obsessions Read set out to find his leads a convincing set. The filmmaker explains, ‘That obsession could something as strange as eating your victim, but for Nigel and Alex I wanted to find something that spoke of a truth or a horror that existed once before. I looked to history.’

Read recognised what he was searching for in the morbid mythology of the ‘Maraclea’. This is a Knight’s Templar fable from thirteenth century France which when seized on by the adolescent protagonists of Like Minds leads to murder and trophy-ism. Read elaborates, as the fable goes, Maraclea was betrothed to a Knight Templar but died before they could wed. The Knight was so tormented by his loss he opened her grave and made love to her body. Exactly nine months later he was summoned to the grave. On opening her coffin he found her remains had been moved, her head had been placed below her pelvis to sit on top of her thigh-bones which had been crossed. A voice told him to guard the skull as it would be the “bringer of all power”. The knight took the skull and found, with the skull in a grail cup, he could defeat and slay all enemies. The idea was that the skull can possess a lot of power, but there has to be a certain process to obtain that skull. I felt this mythology would be of great interest to my psychopaths.’

The result of Read’s imaginative journey through history, myth, forensics and psychology is a film drama that offers the viewer a richly flavoured and chilling psychological puzzle. As Read comments, ‘If you’re going to make a film, make it about something fascinating.’

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The Cast

Pitting talents with the multi-talented Toni Collette are two of today’s most promising young actors- Eddie Redmayne and Tom Sturridge, who took on the roles of the two adolescent psychopaths Alex and Nigel. Also playing important roles are Patrick Malahide (Dr Forbes) and Richard Roxburgh as Inspector Martin McKenzie.

Toni Collete plays Sally, the Forensic Psychologist: Read thought of Toni Collette (About a Boy, Sixth Sense) while he was writing, some seven years before the film actually got made and before Collette had become such a star of international film. He wanted her to play forensic psychologist Sally Rowe whom Read calls ‘our conduit into the story’, and who is bought in by Inspector MacKenzie (Richard Roxburgh) to substantiate his case against schoolboy Alex. Read explains, ‘I wanted someone who I believed in that role, and someone with whom I empathised. I didn’t have a face for Sally until I was three quarters of the way through the script. Then it occurred to me, Toni would be perfect for the role.’

Of Toni Collette’s positive response when she received the completed screenplay several years on, producer Jonathan Shteinman comments, ‘It was Toni’s faith in the screenplay. She didn’t know the director; she only went on the screenplay. That helped the film get up for sure. It’s a good story because it means you can come from nowhere, relatively speaking, write a good script - and have all the elements fall into place.’

The other Australian who came on board the Australian-English co-production in a lead role was Richard Roxburgh (Van Helsing, Moulin Rouge). Read explains, ‘Like Minds is written in Australia, by an Australian, and even though I felt the North of England spoke eloquently of old school traditions, I really wanted to make this film with Australians where possible. I knew Toni could do an English accent brilliantly and Richard had just done Hounds of the Baskervilles - as Sherlock Holmes. So I knew the Brits would believe him. Richard is a chameleon, like Toni. I was able to get these two wonderful actors out of Australia, put them into England and be totally convincing. That’s very exciting.’

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Cool clip from youtube with Gregory Read being interviewed. Impressive acting by both Redmayne and Sturridge (watch it now!)

Casting the young Actors for the leads

The schoolboy leads were always going to be a tough casting call; Alex, who presents the psychological puzzle the audience must unravel, especially so. For Alex, Read felt the story required charisma and unconventional good looks, not to mention the kind of intelligence that prompted Read to think of the character as ‘the master puppeteer’. Read found these in the young theatre actor and recent Cambridge graduate, Eddie Redmayne.

‘I saw him in a play called Hecuba in Covent Garden and he was incredible…I wanted to find someone who had the eyes. The casting was all about eyes.’

For Nigel I was looking for someone dark and quiet. I didn’t want awkward and weird. I saw Tom (Sturridge) in Being Julia where he plays the model son. I thought, here is a boy who could quite easily play evil or dark but why don’t we just play him as a recluse and let the evil grow out of this?’

Eddie Redmayne is Alex Forbes:

‘Despite appearing like a generic, bright adolescent, Alex has had to contend with several major factors in his life that set him aside from the 17yr old stereotype. Not only has he lived in a shadow of guilt over his mother's death at childbirth but his father, with whom he has grown up, has seemingly imposed his own personal repression on his son's life. Couple this with the severe rules and strange hierarchy of English public schools and Alex becomes a remarkably individual, individual.’

‘My headmaster at school had this fantastic method of intimidation that involved speaking softly and leaving extended pauses during conversation that would force you into a verbal monologue just to fill these mammoth voids. When I rehearsed with Patrick Malahide, I found it hilarious that he was adopting these same techniques in his characterisation. It occurred to me that with all the power games that Alex plays not only with Sally but virtually everyone he comes into contact with, these were devices that he would almost certainly have inherited - and actively adopted.’ Says Redmayne of his casting.

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Eddie Redmayne graduated from Cambridge University in 2003. The following year and was named Best Newcomer the Evening Standard Awards 2004, and then at the Critics Circle Theatre Awards 2005. He has appeared in theatre productions for the Donmar Warehouse and Almeida/Apollo Theatre in London and in In Search of Shakespeare for BBC/PBS. Like Minds is Eddie’s first feature film role.

Redmayne, who was last seen in The Good Shepherd, has a number of important projects this year, including Savage Grace, The Other Boleyn Girl and The Golden Age.

Tom Sturridge is Nigel Colby

‘Nigel is a complex and interesting person. He’s a boy with a troubled background from a broken family, who, therefore, is not completely socially adequate. To protect himself he has created this part-fantasy, part-historically accurate world that revolves around the history of the Knights Templar. He goes to a new boarding school and meets a boy who is of ‘like mind’, but slightly more popular, slightly cooler (Alex). He feels he could have something in common with, so he tries to seduce him into the world he has created.’

Up-and-coming young actor Tom Sturridge has proven he can act and held his own playing crucial scenes in such films as Being Julia and Vanity Fair. He debuted in the television movie Gulliver’s Travels, in the title role, at ten in 1996, and a year later played the fairy Hab in the film Fairytale: A True Story.

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Comments (3)

Great acting, not so convincing storylin

eddie redmayne rocks! sturridge not to be outdone, and yes, Toni Collette rules! i remember the film murder by numbers with sandra bullock, but this one is better, much better, though im not totlly convinced by the storyline still its a film that grips you from start to end. buy the dvd, its worth it.

Redge Castro , July 09, 2007

great acting!

We'll launch our review of this film soon. I simply have to add that of the 2 young actors, its quite hard to really choose who did better. Both Redmayne and Sturridge were perfect for their roles. There is a certain depth in Redmayne's acting that is matched by Sturridge's sense of urgency, but his approach is as unique as Redmayne's. I could not believed how these 2 young actors could really portray their characters with such intensity. Its definitely a good film, can even be compared to Murder by Numbers, an earlier film, also featuring 2 good actors- Ryan Gosling and Michael Pitt. But Like Minds has a more sinister, darker feel...

Admin , July 10, 2007

more redmayne!

I'm beginning to see Eddie Redmayne as a top actor! He's into so many films this year and the next, i think he'll get noticed by the big studios... hope he stays doing more indie films before he star in something like Spiderman or any of those franchise.

Lukas Jamieson , July 17, 2007

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