Marc Evans directs this superior British made movie about a man who awakens from a coma to discover his wife is dead and he's haunted by images from the past.
Colin Firth is Ben, a traumatised coma recovery victim. He's confused about his life, and as a result of the death of his wife, possibly caused by himself during a road accident he's moved apartment only down the street near where a famous pop singer was murdered around the time of his wife's death. He has no concrete memory of the recent past, so cannot answer the questions his own mind is posing him.
Stricken by nightmares and bizarre visions, Ben is utterly flummoxed and scared by what is happening to him, and to attempt to escape it he teams up with an old art college friend as a work partner. However, add into the mix his intense grief at his loss, and the entry into his life of the lovely Charlotte, played meltingly wonderfully by Mena Suvari, and it is plain to see that he simply doesn't know who or what to turn to in order to truly get his life back on track. There is also the overriding suspicion that the murder of the singer, Lauren Paris, is in some strange way connected to what is occurring to him...
The direction in Trauma is absolutely fantastic. Psychological suspense is the name of the game here, and although it certainly takes a few nods from the likes of Vanilla Sky and Jacob's Ladder, it's unquestionably its own world. It is certainly the type of superb cinematography which disturbs in this sort of movie, hinting at innate 'wrongness' of certain things.
Firth is initially quite hard to accept as the troubled Ben, but you get used to him and in the end he actually convinces quite well. As said before, Mena Suvari is quite delicious as Charlotte, encompassing a sort of Penelope Cruz demeanour as she was in Vanilla Sky. Her warmth, enthusiasm and eagerness shines through at all times.
However, the only flaw I can find with this story is that I am *slightly* confused by what it all meant, and what the conclusion actually entailed. I am writing this review having read absolutely nothing about the movie, so for all I know, it was a terrible film which confused everyone! However, I really got a kick out of it, and although I am a mite baffled by it all, the polish and quality of everything about it shone through, for me, and I will endeavour to read more about it on this very site.
Personally, if you enjoy psychological thrillers (This *might* have been intended as a horror but it was nowhere near the level of scariness a horror should be) with a hint of the supernatural, give this a shot.
