Review of Before I Go to Sleep (2014) by Alison M — 06 Nov 2014

A cheap disposable Memento from a much better film, muddled mystery Before I Go to Sleep ultimately evokes more cries of Who Cares than Who Done It from moviegoers. Yes, that old stale chestnut amnesia rears its achy head again. To what end, we'll never know because the title to this coma-inducer comes off as a warning more than an alluring marketing siren's call. Even in blatantly ripping off key plot points from one of the most dizzyingly brilliant puzzlers of the last 25 years (memories getting wiped clean come morning, photos used as puzzle pieces), this ploddingly boring flick fails to drum up either suspense or, frankly, interest in the characters. Unlike Memento, however, it plays out in a forward manner that's not necessarily straight-forward. Our forgetful heroine proves unreliable which makes the narrative unreliable. This means that the audience puts together the puzzle piece by piece just as shes figuring it out. Unfortunately, the end result packs little whammy--laughingly more of a gut bust than gut punch.

In this R-rated mystery, a woman (Kidman) who remembers nothing upon waking everyday as a result of a traumatic accident in her past, begins to question everyone around her when truths emerge.

Writer/director Rowan Joffe imbues the goings-on with great flourishes of style but just cant get away from the clichés of this genre, amnesia highest among them. Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth give some great oftentimes emotional performances but the material never rises to meet their high mantle. Even at a usually-brisk 97 minutes, the muddy story manages to drag.

Bottom line: Dread Again.