Alex Thompson directed the tense and haunting psychological thriller ‘Rounding. Premiering at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival, the film follows Dr. James Hayman—a young resident doctor who is trying to deal with the stresses of his medical career.And come to terms with a traumatic past. When it premiered at TIFF, the movie got a lot of attention for how intense it was and; how captivating Namir Smallwood’s performance was.
Now Rounding released by Doppelgänger Releasing and came out in some theaters on January 3, 2025. It was also available digitally on Feb 18, 2025. As the movie starts to play in North America, people can’t help but wonder about the important places that help bring this exciting story to life. Rounding was filmed in a lot of—famous places. These settings set the stage for the main character’s intense mental breakdown.
The Story of Rounding Plot Summary
Rounding is about a young resident doctor named James Hayman (Namir Smallwood) who moves to a rural hospital in Greenville, Illinois, to start over after a traumatic event. James’s journey starts with a terrible accident involving an elderly patient—which keeps coming back to haunt him. He gets lost in his work because he can’t move on but the emotional scars are still fresh.
James becomes obsessed with the case of—Helen Adso, 19 (Sidney Flanigan),a patient at Greenville’s hospital who has severe asthma but whose symptoms don’t quite add up. James’s obsession with Helen’s condition—along with her mother Rebecca Spence’s opposition and the hospital’s red tape, sends him into a downward spiral. As James fights his own mental demons—he starts to lose his grip on reality, which makes him have violent hallucinations and become more and more paranoid.
Where was the movie ‘Rounding’ filmed?
The movie was filmed entirely in Illinois, in places like Elmhurst, Chicago and Highland Park during the tough first pandemic winter. Choosing the right places to film was important for creating the scary atmosphere of the movie and Thompson and his crew made great use of their surroundings.
Alex Thompson and his brother Christopher Thompson, who helped write the movie, go into great detail about the difficulties of residency and show how much pressure doctors are under. The relentless pace and suffocating images of the movie mirror James’ mental breakdown; making for an intense and unsettling viewing experience. Here is a more in-depth look at the filming locations:
Elmhurst, Illinois
In the Chicago metropolitan area, the city of Elmhurst is one of the main filming locations for Rounding. Elmhurst, with its tree-lined streets and residential charm—gave James a sense of normalcy that was different from the mental turmoil he is going through. The calm mood of the town can be seen in the scenes where James starts to be moved to the rural hospital. The quiet suburban landscape of Elmhurst makes the mental breakdown of James even more unsettling.
Chicago, Illinois
Chicago, a busy city with its own lively energy, was also an important part of the movie. The downtown area of the city and nearby neighborhoods were used to show the bigger— more chaotic world outside of the small rural hospital. With its busy streets and quiet neighborhoods, Greenville was a stark contrast to the city.
When Thompson writes about Chicago, it gives James short breaks, and he uses them to walk around the city and work out in the cold air. But these times of peace don’t last long because James becomes more and more obsessed with Helen’s case.
Highland Park, Illinois USA
Highland Park, a suburb of Chicago in the north, was also very important in making Rounding happen. Some of the interior scenes were filmed at Liuna Local 152, a union hall in the area. This scene was filmed in a way that makes the audience aware of how stressful James’s job is as a doctor, where relationships are strained and the weight of responsibility becomes unbearable.
There are scenes in the movie that take place in both hospitals and rural areas of Illinois. The snow-covered roads, small-town streets and wide-open fields create a cold, lonely atmosphere that fits with how James’s mind is falling apart. These places were picked to show how James is becoming more and more physically and emotionally alone as his obsession with Helen and the painful memories of his past take over his life.
Thompson’s choice to film in these rural areas adds to James’s feeling of being trapped because the wide-open spaces represent how big his unresolved trauma is. The calm, rural setting is very different from the intense chaos James is going through inside and the peace only makes things worse.
The people who worked on Rounding have talked about how important the locations were to the mood of the movie. Director Alex Thompson was proud of the film’s settings and said they helped bring the story to life in a way that was both real and unsettling.
He wrote in instagram, “We had a unique set of challenges because we were filming during the first pandemic winter, before the vaccine.” “The places were a big part of making that tension and feeling of being alone.” From director of photography Nate Hurtsellers to gaffer Luke Dyra, our team was great. They knew the locations and how to use them, which helped us create the scary mood of the movie.
He also said nice things about the actors, especially Namir Smallwood, who plays the main character James. Thompson said, “Namir filled every frame with an intensity that I couldn’t have imagined when I wrote the character.” “The locations let us make a space where his performance could really shine and let the audience see how James’ mental health was getting worse.”
Rounding is an exciting psychological journey, and the places where it was shot were very important in creating the mood of the movie. From the quiet streets of Elmhurst to the harsh, industrial interiors of Highland Park, each setting adds to the story’s sense of isolation, tension and unraveling. The landscapes of rural Illinois make James feel even more trapped and obsessed, while the scenes in Chicago give him a short break but only make his inner conflict worse.
These places were used well by director Alex Thompson and his talented cast and crew to bring Rounding to life, making a movie that is both visually stunning and emotionally unsettling. When the movie comes out in theaters in early 2025—it will take people to these creepy places where it gets harder and harder to tell the difference between reality and madness.
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