Before I Go To Sleep - Movie Review

Before I Go To Sleep is directed by Rowan Joffé and tells a story of Christine (Nicole Kidman), an amnesiac who wakes up every morning thinking that she has her whole life ahead of her but is actually a forty-something year old who can't make new memories. Ben(Colin Firth), her husband, goes through the motion of reminding her of events past and calming her down from her daily morning hysteria. Things take a turn when Dr Nasch(Mark Strong), a neuropsychologist, suggests that she keeps a video diary to remind her of the previous day's events. Through these videos she learns not to trust anything or anyone.

I love thriller/suspense films, quite possibly my favourite genre and I must say that I enjoyed this movie. Rowan Joffé's directing is really impressive; he uses the slow zoom to build the suspense and put you in the character's panicky state of mind. The establishing shot of the house is constricted; it's only a slow pan shot that doesn't give us any clue of the house's geographical position, if anything it feels remote and secluded which plays well into the movie because we later find out that Christine doesn't even know where she lives.

The editing is also great. Some scenes are heavily dependent on flashbacks and the timing is just right. Some of the flashbacks repeat throughout the movie and the more that Christine remembers is the more that the plot is revealed to the audience.  In some instances, the flashbacks place doubt or change the meaning of things you thought were certain. There is a particular one where Christine is doubled over the lower drawer and she turns her head towards the door and instead of seeing the door frame a memory is triggered; the flashback is like a illusion. I thought this was really sweet.

I've always loved Nicole Kidman's acting. She's one of the few actresses who takes just about any role and gives a chance to indie movies with low budgets and she goes hard for these movies, too. The cast is practically three people and they're all great. Colin Firth and Mark Strong don't spend much time on the screen and so not much effort is needed from them. They play sombre roles and appear every other scene but that's not to say they put in bad shifts. The cameras mainly focus on Nicole Kidman and she maintains the same energy in every scene especially since she's always frightened and confused, these are tiresome emotions to portray consistently in every scene.

I liked this movie from start to finish. It has a run time of 92 min which is short but just right for this type of movie where the premise is that everyday is the same. You don't want to bore people by going back to the start and rediscovering the same thing everyday.

I'm happy with Rowan Joffé and I'll be looking for more of his films. Before I Go To Sleep is available on Netflix so you can check it out when you have the chance.