Before I Go to Sleep

2014 "Who do you trust?"
6.3| 1h32m| R| en| More Info
Released: 31 October 2014 Released
Producted By: StudioCanal
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

Ever since she sustained a traumatic head injury, Christine Lucas has suffered from anterograde amnesia, unable to form new memories and having forgotten the last 15 years of her life. Every morning, she becomes reacquainted with her husband, Ben, and the other constants in her life. Terrifying truths about her past begin to emerge, causing her to question everything -- and everyone -- around her.

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Reviews

Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever
Micitype Pretty Good
Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good
GazerRise Fantastic!
seymourblack-1 Thrillers in which the main protagonist is an amnesiac often provide great entertainment because it's natural to feel empathy for the victim and also to enjoy trying to solve the mystery surrounding how they arrived in their present predicament. Furthermore, by effectively being put in the shoes of the amnesiac, the audience experiences first hand all the discomforts, frustrations and doubts that come with the condition and share the natural suspicions that arise about the sincerity of the people who are closest to them. Lots of movies feature situations in which "all is not as it seems" or where characters are "not who or what they appear to be" but where there is an amnesiac involved, the scope for exploiting these types of dramatic incidences is almost endless and this is the territory that's explored, with some success in "Before I Go To Sleep".Christine Lucas (Nicole Kidman) is a 40-year-old woman who lives in a quiet part of Berkshire and wakes up each morning with no memory of who she is or the identity of the man with whom she shares her bed. She's always surprised when she looks in the mirror because, for some reason, she expects to see a woman in her twenties and then when she surveys the wall full of photos in her bathroom, sees a pictorial account of her life with her husband, Ben (Colin Firth). Each morning Ben updates her on who he and she are and explains that her memory loss is due to injuries that she suffered in a car accident about 10 years ago.Every morning, a little while after Ben has left for work, Christine receives a phone call from Dr Nasch (Mark Strong), a neuropsychologist who says he's been treating her for some time and directs her to a camera (that's located in her bedroom) in which, at his request, she's been keeping a video diary of her daily life, her thoughts and her feelings. Dr Nasch is hopeful that Christine's use of the video diary will eventually help to restore her memory and in the meetings that he has with her each day, tries to establish the extent to which she can recall the traumatic event that triggered her amnesia. She seems to show some promise of recovery when she starts to remember some brief but unconnected images from her past and some of these images are upsetting. One includes a man with a scar on his face and Dr Nasch tells her that her amnesia is the consequence of a violent attack which she was fortunate to survive.Christine doesn't know who to trust or why Dr Nasch insists that her contacts with him should be kept a secret from Ben but nevertheless, does as the Doctor requests. In one of her meetings with Nasch, Christine shows some interesting responses to being shown certain photographs and this leads to her meeting up with an old friend called Claire (Anne-Marie Duff) who ultimately supplies some information which proves to be critical to uncovering a series of important revelations and to Christine's eventual recovery."Before I Go To Sleep" is an absorbing thriller with a great set-up, an interesting story and a denouement which, although satisfactory, doesn't live up to the standard of the rest of the movie. Despite this, it's consistently compelling to watch, well-paced and played out in a series of locations that very effectively emphasize the fear, confusion and sense of isolation that Christine experiences during her ordeal.The acting performances in this stylish movie are all of a high quality with Nicole Kidman's portrayal of the troubled amnesiac standing out and Colin Firth and Mark Strong fuelling the mystery brilliantly by both being superbly enigmatic and difficult to read at various junctures. Overall, this is definitely a worthy addition to the sub-genre of psychological thrillers in which a character with amnesia is featured.
cinemajesty Film Review: "Before I Go To Sleep" (2014)It is rarely come together, when a film just leaves the spectators nerves blank. Dealing highly adultery themes of grown-up human behavior in relationships of love, anger, control and security in a world out of balance, where the character of Christine Lucas, portrayed by actress Nicole Kidman in exhausting fragile mode of connecting thoughts on a close to impossible state of emotional sophistication between her husband, performing in surprisingly double-shifting manner by actor Colin Firth, her psychiatrist, portrayed in solid states by Mark Strong and further mysterious characters of ex-husband, lost child and abandoned girl-friend that one will ask how director Rowan Joffe could decide to give "Before I Go To Sleep" a running time of just 85 Minutes excluding the end credits.Actress Nicole Kidman carries the film without a doubt, yet the indecisive direction on making the character of Christine just a victim and Kidman's interpretation with the input given creates a rolling-with-it attitude, but no hooking identification with the character of Christine Lucas. She suffers from skilfully opening shot on Nicole Kidman's marine blue blood-shot eye and dollying into medium close-up to the end of finding out the true identities surrounding, which the character throughout the film needs to explore over and over again in locations of clean precision set designs, which at no time break out of the conventional to break a sequence with pure visualizations of Christine's mindscape, recalling Alfred Hitckcock collaborating with Salvadore Dalí for "Spellbound" (1945).Director Rowan Joffe has no such skills of inventing a dream sequence. Instead he delivers a clean-cut string of photographs in a neuro-psychological institution, where the character of Christine needs to confront her demons with the director unable to tighten the screw on nerve-wrecking suspense toward a sensational showdown in a airport hotel room, where Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth, letting the year early build relationship of trust with in season 2012/2013 produced motion picture of "The Railway Man" collide in a full-bodied confrontation between the sexes, worthy to be witness by such talented and engaging cast, yet under Rowan Joffe's direction quickly drifting away into an cliché-netted domestic violence theme, which leaves the spectre unsatisfied and undecided on the screen-story's conclusion, even though everything had been resolved and need-fully packed up from S.J. Watson's novel adaptation to high quality standard's independently produced by Ridley Scott's production company Scott Free.© 2017 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC)
SimonJack A different twist for a plot and some good acting should have made this a rousing mystery film. Unfortunately, "Before I Go to Sleep" gives a feel from the start that what we are seeing isn't quite real. So, we just wait until and as more and more details take shape and begin to make that clear. That results in a wholly different aspect of watching a mystery. Much of the suspense shifts to simply trying to guess or wait for the suspected misleading appearance to lead to the truth. The screenplay, directing and some technical aspects of the film seem off course. Otherwise, the acting is mostly quite good. Nicole Kidman is very good as Christine, but Colin Firth seems stiff as Ben. The R rating probably comes from some graphic scenes in flashbacks of beating and bloodshed. With a solid rewrite of the script and some better sets and solid direction, this might have been a very good mystery. As is, it's just fair.
GlamMetalHead Despite Nicole Kidman not being as likable as say a Jennifer Aniston would have been, this film is engaging, complex, and well put together. Colin Firth and Mark Strong's performances are outstanding. Kidman is annoying but her work is acceptable. In fact, Strong's work carries this film. As is often the case, if this movie had a Aniston, Jennifer Lawrence, or a Rachel McAdams type lead, it would have been amazing. That said, it is still a good film. Unfortunately, I would like to find out what happened to the last five minutes. Without giving any spoilers, those last few minutes were boring, drawn out (without reason), uneventful, and anti- climatic. I didn't read the book so perhaps this is one of those adaptation disasters wherein the book reads fine but when put on film, it goes off the rails. So much so, I was wondering what I missed because it was so bad.Overall, film is worth a watch and is good. I just wish those last few minutes hadn't left such a bad taste in my mouth.