Based on the best selling novel by S.J. Watson, Before I Go To Sleep builds a dark psychological thriller around Christine Lucas (Nicole Kidman), a woman suffering from autograde amnesia after a terrible accident, who everyday wakes up with no memory of the past twenty years of her life. Seemingly in the care of her husband Ben (Colin Firth), while secretly been treated by neuropsychologist Dr. Nash (Mark Strong), she slowly starts to unearth her past, and finds there may be no one around her she can trust.
Written and directed by Rowan Joffé, there is no denying Before I Go To Sleep grabs you from the opening frame. There is certainly some Hitchcock, with a bit of Mememto too, in it's DNA, and for the first half of the movie the tension is built nicely, as the mystery unfolds and you are kept guessing at every turn. As a narrative device, the amnesia is used perfectly, information relayed to Christine through a visual diary on a digital camera, or a well rehearsed speech from Nash. As the movie progresses, the stylish elegant thriller crafted in the first act begins to fall apart, as the story sets a course for the increasingly preposterous, and plot points seem to appear just to move the story forward. Numerous red herrings in relation to the deepening mystery do nothing more than confuse, with your initial thoughts to what is going on probably being true. The story stalls in the second act, and just seems to go in circles before delivering a satisfying and brutal finale.
Kidman is perfect as the fragile Christine, as in the dark as the audience to what's going on. Effectively reseting her character with nearly every scene, she is chilling at times, and makes the more ridiculous elements of the plot more easy to swallow. Colin Firth is equally chilling, playing totally against type as the mysterious Ben. There is a sense of unease that just flows from him whenever he is on screen, and you see something darker just resting underneath his smooth demeanour. Mark Strong is slightly wasted, with Dr. Nash being used as nothing more than spout exposition for the most part.
Not without its flaws, Before I Go To Sleep is an effective thriller, anchored by two fantastic performances from Kidman and Firth.
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