Before I Go to Sleep (2014)
Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Rowan Joffe
Nicole Kidman, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Ben Crompton, Anne-Marie Duff, Adam Levy, Gabriel Strong, Flynn MacArthur, Dean-Charles Chapman
Kidman Has Time and Again
When Christine (Nicole Kidman) wakes up she freaks out as she doesn't recognize the man in bed with her. Going to the bathroom she finds a wall covered in photos and notes saying he is Ben (Colin Firth) her husband. It is then Ben tells her that many years ago she was in an accident and now suffers from a neurological condition which means when she wakes up she can't remember anything from the day before and effectively the last thing she remembers is from before the accident. After Ben goes to work Christine gets a call from Dr. Nasch (Mark Strong), a neurologist at a local hospital, who has been secretly helping Christine by having her record her thoughts everyday. Slowly Christine tries to piece together what is going on in this confusing world as things which Dr. Nasch tells Christine contradict those Ben tells her.
Two movies spring to mind when you read a synopsis which features daily memory loss, "50 First Dates" and "Memento" and trust me when I say "Before I Go to Sleep" is nothing like "50 First Dates". But it isn't in the same league as "Memento" and I find myself strangely in a contradiction because what we get in this movie is a complex, quickly paced storyline as Christine tries to make sense of who she is and what has happened to her over the last decade. Yet "Before I Go to Sleep" is also simple because the whole draw of the movie is to discover the truth; was someone trying to kill her and if so who or is someone keeping her in this state of memory loss. And of course who can Christine really trust?
Now "Before I Go to Sleep" is made in such a way that it doesn't give you much time to think about the logic of things and when you do is when it starts to have issues. For example when we first meet Christine she wakes and she is naked, not unusual until you then learn that during her 24 hours after she hears from Dr. Nasch each day she starts to question who Ben is and whether she can trust him. Now I don't know about you but if you basically have just met a guy and are not entirely sure about him will you get in to bed naked with him? There are more and it is only until you take a breath and think about the movie that these flaws begin to appear.
But thankfully the performances in "Before I Go to Sleep" help to keep your mind off of the logic of the movie and both Colin Firth and Mark Strong do a nice job of making you question their intentions. In fact Colin Firth does a decent job of showing a darker side to his character to make him come across as sinister and of course suspicious.
What this all boils down to is that "Before I Go to Sleep" didn't captivate me in the same way it appears to have captivated others and sadly the flaws in the logic kept on showing their ugly heads. But it is still a fast paced movie which takes you on quiet an entertaining ride.
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TOP TEN BRAT PACK MOVIES
1) The Breakfast Club (1985)
2) St. Elmo's Fire (1985)
3) About Last Night... (1986)
4) Sixteen Candles (1984)
5) Oxford Blues (1984)
6) Class (1983)
7) Pretty in Pink (1986)
8) Mannequin (1987)
9) Weird Science (1985)
10) Youngblood (1986)
Empire Records (1995)