Shrink is a 2009 American independent black comedy-drama film about a psychiatrist who treats members of the entertainment industry in Los Angeles, California.

Carter lives in a large, luxurious house overlooking the Hollywood Hills and has published a hugely successful self-help book.

Kate is an actress in her thirties who is intelligent, compassionate and poised, but is facing fewer career opportunities because of Patrick's notion that her age is a limitation.

Carter's newest patient, Jemma, is a troubled high-school student who is required by her school to see a therapist after cutting her hand by punching a mirror.

Carter suffers a breakdown on a live television talk show, alarming the host and the viewers when he states publicly for the first time that his wife died by suicide.

The website's critical consensus reads: "Kevin Spacey's performance is almost sharp enough to save this Hollywood dramedy from itself, but in the end, he's dragged down by a cliched script and indifferent direction.

[6] Stephen Holden of The New York Times noted how the film comes across as a "kinder and gentler" contemporary to Joan Didion's novel Play It as It Lays and lacks the "ruthless satiric thrust" of Robert Altman's The Player or the "pungent gallows humor of a Bruce Wagner novel", but gave praise to Spacey for his portrayal of "bone-deep cynicism" in his role, and the "atmospheric cinematography" and "hovering music" for giving the film "a queasy downbeat mood".

"[8] Amy Biancolli of the San Francisco Chronicle praised Spacey's performance as the title character, the film's humor and delivery of "a few fine moments of truth and pathos" that address "a subset of grief", but criticized the plot's reliance on "pat betrayal, forced coincidences – and the sort of closure that lands, with a thud, in a tidy package of cliches".

She concluded, "Had director Jonas Pate and screenwriter Thomas Moffett limited themselves to the bags under Henry's eyes and the emotional hollow behind them, they might have produced a minor classic.

"[9] Marjorie Baumgarten of The Austin Chronicle praised Spacey's "sardonic line delivery" of his role, as well as the appearances of Plemons and Vidal for being "uncharted and fresh" and a "startling surprise", respectively, but criticized the film's "shallow story" with interconnecting characters that strained credibility, concluding, "The film's conclusion is anticlimactic and unsatisfying, but maybe that's a faithful replication of the psychiatric experience: a quiet shutting of the barn door once the horse has already galloped away from the stable.