Before I Go to Sleep - Film Review

Before I Go to Sleep is a British mystery thriller written and directed by Rowan Joffe and stars Nicole Kidman, Colin Firth and Mark Strong. The film centres on Kidman's character Christine, a middle aged woman who wakes up every morning with no memory of her life from her 20's onwards. Her husband Ben (Colin Firth) has the endless task of telling Christine who is he is, what happened to her and why she has amnesia. She also receives a mysterious phone call everyday from a Dr Nash (Mark Strong) who explains that she has been the subject of a brutal attack and tells her to keep a secret video diary so that she can remember the events of the previous day and hopefully re-jog her memory to find out who was responsible for the attack. She has the task of trying to decipher her flashbacks and figure out who ultimately is telling the truth.

This film on paper had plenty of potential. Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth were both central characters in The Railway Man which came out in January this year and they showed effortless chemistry. They both however had a couple of big stinkers this year, which I had the pleasure of seeing. Kidman starred in Grace of Monaco, which was the aftermath of a wild house party and Firth starred in the most boring film I've witness for a long time, Devils Knot. Happily this film is far more interesting and entertaining. The film's visual style fits the mystery genre mold perfectly. It looks exceedingly grey and depressing, creating a very bleak atmosphere which parallels Christine's situation. Her character is in a difficult situation hence her shaken personality and tentativeness which Kidman expressed really well. She does cry for about 75% of the film but it doesn't feel melodramatic and that's where her experience showed. The only upside to her amnesia is that when she does wake up every morning, she's next to Colin Firth which if you're a female isn't too bad I guess! Firth and Mark Strong both gave shifty performances so it kept me guessing who to believe as the story unraveled. It was a side of Colin Firth that I haven't seen before and it showed how much depth he has as an actor. I'm a big fan of Mark Strong. He has a menacing on screen presence and it's easy to see why American studios always seem to cast him as the villain. I'm sure he's a decent bloke in real life but he does look like if you got on the wrong side of him he'd rip your face off. Overall all three were terrific and they enhanced on what was a very average script.

When eventually the film hits the climax, it's a big shift in pace that definitely caught me off guard. The film is in cruise control for the majority of the second act which wasn't slow by any means. But when the villain is finally revealed, the film's pace goes into overdrive and I thought that initially was a clever move. It's from that point onwards however that the film starts to scratch heads. To put it bluntly, the way that Christine's attack is explained and how she got it into the situation that she's in, is absurd and absolutely barmy. I'd love to explain how it happens but I don't want to spoil the plot. It's mental. Did that detracted me from enjoying this film? Not really. You won't be annoyed by the reveal. Instead you'll be in disbelief and in a good way. Like a crazy magic trick that you can't get your head around. There are a few plot holes that you can easily pick on and for a mystery thriller that's a problem because you want everything to be explained at the end and the film doesn't quite do that fully.

Before I Go to Sleep thankfully has no irony attached to it. A fun film that has a good pace and intriguing plot along with quality all round performances. It's not a masterpiece and not that original but it certainly has entertaining moments and twists which will keep you guessing. A good rainy day film if you've got nothing else better to do.

7/10

As Above/So Below - Film Review

Horror found footage films are from my experience not exactly masterpieces of the cinematic universe. They're made for about twenty quid and that cheapness glares out of the screen. Many critics and film fans are sick of them. And I have to agree. I've seen 2 horror found footage films this year, Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones and Devils Due. Both are horrendous. The latest Paranormal Activity did attempt a new twist to refresh the franchise but it was so random and ridiculous. At times it looked like a rip off Chronicle and it followed the same formula as every other found footage horror. Boring. Devils Due was a dump fest of cliches, dumb characters and a terrible storyline. I remember going to see this film with a mate who loves horrors. He turned to me and started laughing when the main female character started to eat a deer. Bet she smelt nice next to her husband in the morning. Would As Above So Below fair any better and finally bring something new to the table to this tired overplayed gimmick?

As Above So Below is directed and written by John Erick Dowdle and stars Perdita Weeks as a young, intelligent and adventurous archaeologist who has spent her career searching for the Philosophers Stone after her father's suicide. She leads a team down into the Paris catacombs to find this artifact which consequently leads them into the bowels of hell and they have to try and escape. The plot does sound like a Harry Potter and Indiana Jones crazy cocktail and it does pay homage to them films. Thankfully the found footage element does pay off due to the location of where the majority of the film takes place, inside the narrow claustrophobic catacombs. If you do have that phobia, this film will definitely make you feel very uncomfortable. I'd never heard of any the cast, which for a horror rings alarm bells but they did a solid job with the material they had. I loved how the film used sound effects especially towards the end of the film. They do creep you out and it creates plenty of tension which many found footage films fail at miserably. There was some scary imagery and it did make me jump a few times. The last 20 minutes had me on edge and it reminded me of a theme park scare maze. A big surprise which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Set ups for horrors are never their strongest features. Plenty of them do take a third of the film to get going. But the set up for As Above So Below was absolutely shocking, and not in a good way. It was completely pointless and an utter snoozefest. I think the director didn't bother and couldn't care less about introducing any of the characters, apart for the lead female. It's just a load of random peeps that were thrown together and as per usual with horror films used only as cannon fodder for Satan, so the audience can see them get annihilated. It was pretty pathetic. The story is very generic and doesn't have an ounce of creativity which is a shame because I reckon this film had the potential to be a breath of fresh air for the found footage genre. Laziness however sinks the film into mediocrity.

As Above So Below is a decent horror film which utilises the found footage gimmick to good effect. The scares are satisfying but a boring story and cringe-worthy set up makes the film pretty average and forgetful. It's frustrating because the potential was there to be seen. Grrrrrrrr!!

6/10