Before I Go To Sleep**

Dir:  Rowan Joffé

Starring: Nicole Kidman, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Anne-Marie Duff

Christopher Nolan set the bar with Memento as far as movie’s concerning amnesia and/or short-term memory loss are concerned. Any film dealing with the subject now has to bring something (anything) new to the plate otherwise it’ll just look trite, dated, and predictable. Unfortunately, based on S.J. Watson’s novel of the same name, Rowan Joffé’s Before I Go To Sleep, never really rises above the level of midnight television viewing.

Christine (Nicole Kidman) wakes up each morning with no memory of who she is or where she is. Her loving husband, Ben (Colin Firth) patiently explains her situation to her every day.

But when a psychiatrist (Mark Strong) contacts Christine to offer counseling, she begins to doubt everything that she is being told.

Will Christine be able to uncover the truth and find the person responsible for her condition?

What do you think?

The movie’s well-known stars do their best with what they have. But what they have is very insubstantial.

The movie’s never able to dig underneath the surface to give us fully realised characters or to explore themes of identity and consciousness. So what we are left with is nothing more than an entirely predictable thriller.

Joffé shoots the movie in muted winter colours which only further accentuates the movie’s coldness.

Cut to chase: Predictable thriller. Only if you have nothing better to do.