“…studies the fear a nd vulnerability someone would experience when waking up every day with absolutely no memory of the day before.”

Our memories are more important to us than we often realize. We may forget appointments, things we were supposed to do, or even something as simple as what we had for breakfast that day. When we do forget simple, mundane things, we don’t panic. However, imagine forgetting entire days. You literally have no recollection of anything that happened to you the day before. Was it a good day? Did you spend the day alone or with someone? Did something horrible happen to you? You literally have no clue what happened to you throughout the course of a whole day. Now imagine an entire stretch of days, even years, where you have no memory of your life. The film Before I Go to Sleep (directed by Rowan Joffe, 2014) studies the fear and vulnerability someone would experience when waking up every day with absolutely no memory of the day before.

“My name is Christine Lucas. Tonight, as I sleep, my mind will erase everything that I know today…He says he’s protecting you but don’t trust anyone.” Christine Lucas (played by Nicole Kidman) experienced a traumatic brain injury ten years ago that renders her memories up to her early twenties entirely wiped away. Every morning, she turns to see a man she has no memory of sharing her bed, and the pictures in the bathroom remind her he is her husband Ben (played by Colin Firth). Every morning when he wakes up, he has the exhausting task of explaining to Christine her unfortunate situation as well as filling her in on their history together from their marriage to the accident that caused her condition. When he leaves for work each morning, the telephone rings and a man named Dr. Nasch (played by Mark Strong) explains to her that they have been working together on therapies that might help her get her memory back. However, when Dr. Nasch urges Christine to keep it a secret from her husband, and she realizes that her husband isn’t telling her the whole truth about her forgotten memories, she begins to wonder who she can trust.

This film’s premise isn’t entirely unique. In fact, there are several movies that take on the same idea of memory loss. In 2004, Adam Sandler’s character spends every day trying to win over Drew Barrymore’s character in the film 50 First Dates. With her short-term, she has no recollection of their previous dates, and it’s as if she meets him each day for the first time when she wakes in the morning. In the 2000 film Momento, Guy Pearce plays a man with severe short-term memory loss, who sometimes can’t remember something that just happened 10 seconds prior. With an elaborate system he created, he reminds himself of his ultimate goal: finding the man who killed his wife and who caused his short-term memory loss. Before I Go to Sleep is basically a combination of these two movies. Every morning her husband has to remind her who he is, but as she begins to make discoveries about herself and her past, she realizes her condition puts her entirely at the mercy of someone who may not be telling her the whole truth.

Nicole Kidman plays the vulnerable victim of mental instability convincingly, and Colin Firth and Mark Strong are both fresh from their solid performances in Kingsman: The Secret Service. Before I Go to Sleep isn’t lacking in great performances, but it does seem to be lacking the excitement and momentum of a good thriller. There is a familiar predictability that comes with movies like these, and while Momento was fresh and original 15 years ago, this film just doesn’t revive that premise while bringing much of anything new to the table. It’s simply an interesting story that unfolds, and you only continue to watch so that you can say at the end, “Oh, yea, that’s what I thought was going to happen.” When the film does finally break through that same repetitious feel of watching a woman relive a morning over and over again, there are some interesting twists and turns that will manage to hold your interest until the end. While it is fairly lackluster, I’ll still give it a 6/10, if only because Colin Firth is amazing. I won’t recommend watching this one, but I won’t necessarily encourage you not to watch it either.