Before I Go to Sleep

2014 "Who do you trust?"
6.3| 1h32m| R| en| More Info
Released: 31 October 2014 Released
Producted By: StudioCanal
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

Ever since she sustained a traumatic head injury, Christine Lucas has suffered from anterograde amnesia, unable to form new memories and having forgotten the last 15 years of her life. Every morning, she becomes reacquainted with her husband, Ben, and the other constants in her life. Terrifying truths about her past begin to emerge, causing her to question everything -- and everyone -- around her.

Genre

Thriller, Mystery

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Director

Rowan Joffe

Production Companies

StudioCanal

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Before I Go to Sleep Audience Reviews

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Actuakers One of my all time favorites.
ShangLuda Admirable film.
Ava-Grace Willis Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.
Loui Blair It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.
seymourblack-1 Thrillers in which the main protagonist is an amnesiac often provide great entertainment because it's natural to feel empathy for the victim and also to enjoy trying to solve the mystery surrounding how they arrived in their present predicament. Furthermore, by effectively being put in the shoes of the amnesiac, the audience experiences first hand all the discomforts, frustrations and doubts that come with the condition and share the natural suspicions that arise about the sincerity of the people who are closest to them. Lots of movies feature situations in which "all is not as it seems" or where characters are "not who or what they appear to be" but where there is an amnesiac involved, the scope for exploiting these types of dramatic incidences is almost endless and this is the territory that's explored, with some success in "Before I Go To Sleep".Christine Lucas (Nicole Kidman) is a 40-year-old woman who lives in a quiet part of Berkshire and wakes up each morning with no memory of who she is or the identity of the man with whom she shares her bed. She's always surprised when she looks in the mirror because, for some reason, she expects to see a woman in her twenties and then when she surveys the wall full of photos in her bathroom, sees a pictorial account of her life with her husband, Ben (Colin Firth). Each morning Ben updates her on who he and she are and explains that her memory loss is due to injuries that she suffered in a car accident about 10 years ago.Every morning, a little while after Ben has left for work, Christine receives a phone call from Dr Nasch (Mark Strong), a neuropsychologist who says he's been treating her for some time and directs her to a camera (that's located in her bedroom) in which, at his request, she's been keeping a video diary of her daily life, her thoughts and her feelings. Dr Nasch is hopeful that Christine's use of the video diary will eventually help to restore her memory and in the meetings that he has with her each day, tries to establish the extent to which she can recall the traumatic event that triggered her amnesia. She seems to show some promise of recovery when she starts to remember some brief but unconnected images from her past and some of these images are upsetting. One includes a man with a scar on his face and Dr Nasch tells her that her amnesia is the consequence of a violent attack which she was fortunate to survive.Christine doesn't know who to trust or why Dr Nasch insists that her contacts with him should be kept a secret from Ben but nevertheless, does as the Doctor requests. In one of her meetings with Nasch, Christine shows some interesting responses to being shown certain photographs and this leads to her meeting up with an old friend called Claire (Anne-Marie Duff) who ultimately supplies some information which proves to be critical to uncovering a series of important revelations and to Christine's eventual recovery."Before I Go To Sleep" is an absorbing thriller with a great set-up, an interesting story and a denouement which, although satisfactory, doesn't live up to the standard of the rest of the movie. Despite this, it's consistently compelling to watch, well-paced and played out in a series of locations that very effectively emphasize the fear, confusion and sense of isolation that Christine experiences during her ordeal.The acting performances in this stylish movie are all of a high quality with Nicole Kidman's portrayal of the troubled amnesiac standing out and Colin Firth and Mark Strong fuelling the mystery brilliantly by both being superbly enigmatic and difficult to read at various junctures. Overall, this is definitely a worthy addition to the sub-genre of psychological thrillers in which a character with amnesia is featured.
GlamMetalHead Despite Nicole Kidman not being as likable as say a Jennifer Aniston would have been, this film is engaging, complex, and well put together. Colin Firth and Mark Strong's performances are outstanding. Kidman is annoying but her work is acceptable. In fact, Strong's work carries this film. As is often the case, if this movie had a Aniston, Jennifer Lawrence, or a Rachel McAdams type lead, it would have been amazing. That said, it is still a good film. Unfortunately, I would like to find out what happened to the last five minutes. Without giving any spoilers, those last few minutes were boring, drawn out (without reason), uneventful, and anti- climatic. I didn't read the book so perhaps this is one of those adaptation disasters wherein the book reads fine but when put on film, it goes off the rails. So much so, I was wondering what I missed because it was so bad.Overall, film is worth a watch and is good. I just wish those last few minutes hadn't left such a bad taste in my mouth.
Filipe Neto This movie is a mystery thriller around a woman suffering from a rare amnesia condition due to a serious trauma and who, therefore, wakes up every day thinking she is twenty years old and not even remembering her marriage. The idea would be very interesting if it had been well developed by the script, but it didn't. As the film goes by, the villain becomes too obvious, as are the plot holes. One of the most obvious is the marriage of Christine (the name of the character, played by Nicole Kidman): if her condition of amnesia causes her to forget only the memories from a given moment of life forward, and if that moment happened when she was already married or, at least, the girlfriend of the one who would become her husband, how could she forget his face? This is just an example of a plot hole I discovered. I will not give more so I will not spoil the whole story. Kidman was OK but not amazing; Colin Firth starts slowly but improves with the film's advance; Mark Strong does a good supporting role but does not have room to do much.
Lola A Keeps you curious the whole time. Real-life lessons: not all those who love you are good for you or to you. This a great example of that. When someone is violent (or even shows signs of violence), they might explain their behaviour to themselves as " I am doing this for love because its necessary' but that is NEVER never acceptable. When someone is violent, lies to you, blackmails you in the name of love, they are not loving you (lets not discuss how far away this is from Mark Manson's unconditional love). Another lesson, affairs risk everything. If Christine didn't have an affair, Mike would not have become obsessed and destroy her life forever. If you are having an affair be ready to face the reality that that men or woman will eventually blackmail you and destroy your marriage. Affairs risk everything, if you are not ready to risk stay away from one. Character analysis and development: Christine- had an affair without realising the risk that that will impose on her marriage and family. The character is not deep enough for the public to understand why she took that risk in the first place if Ben was so great. Mike- even violent people can fall in love, even those that do nor handle woman with respect fall in love, even those you are ready to do whatever it takes (lies, violence, whatever without regarding other feelings) to get what they want fall in love. Just hope that you are not one of those people they fall in love with. Because even tho they are in love, they won't spare you from the evil traits of their character. They will eventually be themselves with you. Oppressive love is not flattering. It is not even real love. Real love, the one that matters, is build on respect, support and care. Mike's character is also not deep enough to makes us understand why he behaves like he does. Acting: Both leads Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth are great, the only thing (which is maybe more a script error than an acting one) is how we see Colin Firth's character with sympathy before Christine knows he is the one who did this to her and we never suspect a thing. If a character is truly believable we should not like this character even when we have no clue he is the bad guy. Colin Firth should have gives us something be that face expressions or way of taking or whatever, to make us go like " there is something about this guy I don't like'. Plausibility: well my only comment is she can't remember for 10 years than suddenly when she sees her son in the end she does? I mean she did see her son before why was he not the breakthrough before. But I suspect that the intention was to be implied that returning to the scene where she lost her memory, helped her remember. And maybe recalling the same information for the past 2 weeks stuck in her brain this time. Storytelling: great way to tell the story, same as The Anomaly, we learn the story together with the lead. Very common for mysteries which I realised that I like this way of storytelling. One disappointment I had was that the reason why some tried to kill Christine was not as glamorous as I expected. In the beginning I was thinking maybe she knew something top secret about something super important and that's why someone wanted her dead. In the end it was just because of a weak men's cruelty .