Review of Before I Go to Sleep (2014) by Walter M — 03 Mar 2015

"Before I Go to Sleep" starts with Christine(Nicole Kidman) waking up in a bed naked with no idea of where she is, nor who she has woken up next to or pretty much the last fifteen years of her life. As Ben(Colin Firth) introduces himself to her as her husband, he points out that she has amnesia which resets her memory every night and was caused by an auto accident she was in. After Ben goes to work, Christine gets a call from Dr. Nasch(Mark Strong) who tells her that she has been seeing him for the past few weeks and to check the camera at the bottom of her closet for confirmation. Oh, and her amnesia is actually the result of being brutally attacked...

More Hitchcock than Nolan, "Before I Go to Sleep" takes full advantage of its limited setting and point of view to effectively tell a creepy mystery that explores Chrstine's past through most of its length. The shame is that at some point the shoe must drop which in this case is a pair of size 12 loafers, confirming some of the uneasy suspicions I had been nursing up to that point. So, while the ensuing revelation and what follows do not entirely work, they do not entirely derail the story either, mostly because of the emotional payoff at the end and the way the movie was cast, especially Nicole Kidman.