Before I Go to Sleep ** (2014, Nicole Kidman, Colin Firth, Mark Strong) – Movie Review

Nicole Kidman stars as Christine Lucas, a woman who wakes up every day remembering nothing as her memory is wiped every night during sleep after a traumatic accident in her past. As she tries to stitch together the facts of her life, terrifying truths emerge that force her to question everyone around her. Colin Firth co-stars as her husband Ben and Mark Strong plays her doctor Dr Nash, with Anne-Marie Duff as Claire.

With the first-rate cast in place, writer-director Rowan Joffe’s movie of S.J. Watson’s apparently esteemed bestselling novel should be great. But it isn’t. It’s hard to believe a word of this contrived and artificial thriller. All four three actors try hard but they’re unconvincing and wasted. Kidman’s little girl in peril turn just isn’t credible after so many years of convincing us she’s a strong, capable woman. (I know she won an Oscar as the tormented Virginia Woolf in 2002’s The Hours, but that was more about the fake nose.) Firth’s sinister turn just isn’t credible either after so many years of convincing us he’s a nice guy.

Even at 90 minutes, this would-be classy mystery thriller is surprisingly boring and sleep inducing. It does have some success at conjuring up an unsettling mood and eerie, Memento-style atmosphere, but it’s no new Memento. It’s the kind of movie I usually really like, but I didn’t like it at all. It has no guts, no credibility. It’s dull and dreary.

For buffs of dull and dreary trivia, this was the last feature film to use Fuji 35mm film stock, whose production has now ended.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Movie Review

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