Film director Rowan Joffe was brave when he decided to make ‘Before I Go to Sleep‘ (2013). Amnesia is an excellent premise for the psychological thriller genre. The challenge, however, is difficult for screenwriters and filmmakers who are venturing into this genre, as the quality benchmark is somewhere high. At least two films are references in this genre: Hitchcock‘s ‘Spellbound‘ from 1945 and Christopher Nolan‘s ‘Memento‘ from 2000. Rowan Joffe enjoyed working with an excellent cast with Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth in the lead roles, and based on a script he wrote himself (adaptation of a novel). As a script author, Joffe had some successes, among which ‘28 Weeks Later‘ which was viewed and commented broadly in recent weeks because it has as theme England after a pandemic. However, if we are to consider ‘Before I Go to Sleep‘, the film director Rowan Joffe fails to rise to the same level as the screenwriter Rowan Joffe.
We are dealing in this film with an unusual triangle of characters. Christine, a 40-year-old woman, wakes up every morning in bed with a man she doesn’t know. Ben explains her every time that he is her husband, and that she has lost her memory for the last 20 years. He goes to work, she remains alone at home, and then the phone rings. At the other end of the conversation is Dr. Nash, a psychiatrist who is trying to help her recover her lost memory using video recordings. The routine is repeated every day (there are no weekend days in this movie!) As time goes on, information about Christine’s traumatic buried past begins to gather. But is this information accurate? Can the lonely and vulnerable woman trust any of the two men? What role did they play in her previous life and in the events that caused her amnesia?
I will not reveal anything more about the story, but it is clear that there are in the scenario the premises of a good psychological thriller, with hidden identity games, conflicts between reality and imagination, between memory and traumatic forgetfulness. As a film director, Rowan Joffe adopts a neutral, sterile style, better fit to a television drama. Nicole Kidman‘s acting saves some of the film, but she can’t fill in for the lack of chemistry or tension with Colin Firth, an actor whose interpretations I confess that seldom convince me. The film could have been much darker and more tense if the directorial approach had been different. From what could have been a good horror movie we remain only with an acceptable thriller. This is not to be neglected either, at least ‘Before I Go to Sleep‘ is a safe movie to watch before going to sleep.