The Actor

In original '50s-based drama "The Actor" after apparently being hit by a jealous husband, womanising thespian André Holland wakes from a coma in a small Ohio town - penniless & with long & short-term memory loss. As he tries getting home to NY he comes across Gemma Chan & Joe Cole, and the likes of Toby Jones, Simon McBurney, Tracy Ullman, & Youssef Kerkour who all play multiple roles. That latter quirk adds to the dreamy, surreal feel that Duke Johnson pushes hard for with his heavily stylised direction - but what is it that he & first-time co-writer Stephen Cooney are aiming for with their screenplay... THAT is ultimately unclear - and ultimately disappointing.

This movie is not for everybody. In fact it is for hardly anybody. It is a niche film, if you like the cinematic style and atmosphere so much that you are willing to put up with the lack of plot, character development and closure.

There is not a single relatable character in the movie. There is an amnesia storyarc that has no beginning nor ending. As if it was put to the scipt too late, so neither the protagonist does not act as a person with amnesia, nor his environment doesn't behave if they give a $hit.

It is true though, that the movie is unique. Mostly in its visual style and being overly and unnecessarily pretentious. "There's a stillness to the small-town streets, a melancholy in the way light falls through a dusty window or how the wind carries distant voices that feel like echoes of a life once lived." It is difficult to challenge that. Yet the movie is not enjoyable. At all.