Clarius Entertainment, Scott Free Productions, Millennium Films,
Nicole Kidman, Colin Firth, Mark Strong,
Christine (Nicole Kidman) wakes up one morning, terrified to be in bed next to a man she does not know. He explains his name is Ben (Colin Firth) and he is her husband. He explains to her that she was in an accident 10 years ago and has short term memory loss, a form of amnesia which makes her forget everything in her life after the accident. She is terrified, but as we learn by watching, this happens every morning, and he is forced to catch her up every day with the same questions and fear every day. She receives a call from a Dr. Nasch (Mark Strong) who tells her that he has been secretly seeing here for some time and is making some progress with her case. In a flashback, we see Dr. Nasch first treating her and giving her a camera to record what happens and what she learns every day, and to hide it in a special place where Ben will not find it. Sure enough, each morning she finds the camera, watches the recording that far, and adds when new things she learns each day. As time passes she begins to find out that Ben often lies to her, and when she confronts him, he explains that it’s just easier to skip some things since he has been doing this every day for 10 years. But as she progresses in keeping her video journal every day, she begins to learn new things and to distrust everyone in her life trying to find out what is really the truth of what happened to her and who among her limited number of friends and family are who they say they are.
This is a very creepy and sinister film with lots of mystery and suspense. Certainly the concept of short term amnesia (50 First Dates) is not unique and has been used a number of times (Memento). But this one is really a lot different and actually I really enjoyed it very much. I enjoyed Firth and Kidman in 2013’s “The Railway Man” [Click here for Ed’s Review] which I really enjoyed. In that film, Colin Firth was the crazy one, but here the roles are somewhat reversed. They worked so well together in that film, and I really enjoyed them here as well. However, the usual caveat, my Daughter is a recent college graduate who read the novel by the same name, and hated this film. Going into the film, she thought out loud, “How are they going to make a movie out of this book?” only to be crushed at all the many, many things that are different. Some not so big a deal, but some things (like the entire ending) are completely different. Note that in the beginning of the film, it says that it was inspired by the novel, and so it is quite a bit different. This offended her to no end, as she really loved the book and was off to reread the novel last I heard. Having NOT read the novel, it was a very refreshing film to me, and a quite unique story that was very well done. I was very impressed with the story and the extreme suspense through the entire film up to the stunning conclusion. Additionally, I found Nicole’s portrayal of the terror of waking up every day with no knowledge that you were 10 years older and had no memory of anything that happened in the last 10 years. Apparently a lot of people loved the book, or the public relations on this film was very poorly done, as this had a very, very short run in theaters and now is available on video. I highly recommend this Hidden Gem of a movie as one I’m sure you missed but will probably really enjoy.
EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog
