Before I Go to Sleep

Overview: Clever, emotional, Kidman in her 40's is a totally different actress (hopefully she'll get a role that will become a classic).

If you've seen 50 First Dates and Momento then you will have this movie pretty much figured out in the first 15 minutes or so. However that said it still manages to leave you just as uncertain about what's going on along with Kidman's character until the reveal. Careful observation will give you the clues though. The plot is clever and as you'd expect Colin Firth acts superbly and Mark Strong is also very good as the Doctor. As for Nicole Kidman I must confess age has done her wonders, gone is that teenage look that may have prevented here being taken seriously for "heavy" parts. The Others was a bit wooden (although the character did require that in fairness), Australia would have benefited from Nicole's more mature look. She is excellent, pulling you in to her confusion and roller coaster of emotions she goes through with each day and set of new facts she finds out. I really enjoyed this movie and would highly recommend it to anyone who likes a clever thriller without the pointless need for tons of special effects.

DON'T read spoilers, they really will ruin the film for you.

Literally messing with your head, Nicole Kidman plays a woman who suffered Trauma to the head that makes her forget the past 15 years of her life when she falls asleep. She wakes up next to her husband, a man she does not know unforgettably played by Colin Firth, and as her doctor played by Mark Strong begins to help her deal with the illness things about her past begin to burst out like a kid taking out puzzle pieces and some how she has to put this puzzle together, even though when she wakes in the morning, the puzzle's messed up again. It's a strange mystery watching the protagonist solve the mystery that is her life. The whole thing would have come off one dimensional if it were not for Colin Firth's part as the emotionally distress husband who loves his wife but wants somethings to stay lost in her memory. It was an enjoyable ride watching the mystery unfold, definitely glad I saw it.

The premise of Before I Go to Sleep is quite a good one. A woman wakes up each day with no memory beyond her early twenties; soon she begins to realise that some dark secrets are being hidden from her. It's sort of in similar territory to Christopher Nolan's early neo-noir Memento (2000), which was also a mystery/thriller about a character with a short-term memory loss condition. Like that one, here one of the interesting angles is that the central character has no idea if their friends really are friends or actually enemies. It's true that several aspects of the storyline require you to stretch your belief somewhat; however, many thrillers are similar in this respect, so this wasn't such a deal-breaker for me. The problem I essentially had is that while the idea may be pretty intriguing, ultimately the pay-off is somewhat mediocre and conventional. Piece by piece the puzzle is slowly unravelled but it doesn't end up presenting us with a picture that is very inspired or interesting and you sort of ask yourself 'is that it?'

I agree with the reviewer who wrote that this was "three quarters of a very good film." The cast is marvelous. Kidman brings movie queen presence and guarded vulnerability to her role, as only she can. The icy, remote, sparse atmosphere of the film is noteworthy, but somehow creates a detachment from the raw emotions of the story. The plot unfolds in an efficient, generally satisfying manner. However, the film is sober, where it should have been flamboyant, and safe where it might have been edgy. In the end, I was wishing this had been filmed with panache, by a stylish and adventurous director. Atmosphere and character developments might have been richer and more complex. As it stands, it is a solid, classy, well-acted potboiler.

In 1995, there was a movie called "While You Were Sleeping", a romantic vehicle for Sandra Bullock, but this 2014 similarly-titled work is very different: a thriller with Nicole Kidman in the central role as Christine, a woman who suffered a serious assault years ago and now forgets everything each time she sleeps. Two men are trying to help her, husband Ben (Colin Firth) and therapist Dr Nash (Mark Strong). Like most standard thrillers, we find that our assessments of the principals swing back and forth before 'the big reveal'.

There is a sub-genre of movies involving limited memory - think "Blink", "The Bourne Identity" or "50 First Dates" to name just a few - and "Before I Go To Sleep" is not the best of them (that would be "Memento") but, if one does not think too much about the implausible narrative, this is entertaining enough, helped by good source material (the best-selling novel by S J Watson) and the solid acting (Kidman with a good English accent, Firth not as straighforwardly charming as he is usually, Strong not as as unremittingly threatening as he is so often).