Before I go to sleep

A review from our Community Correspondent Emily @caminosmem

4/5 – General release, rating 15

I was initially intrigued by this film due to the actors in it. I’ve always liked Nicole Kidman and who doesn’t like Colin Firth?

The film didn’t let me down, the actors were great and Colin was great in his role. Not to spoil the plot but he’s not your usual Mr Darcy…

The film is about Christine who is suffering with amnesia and wakes up each day not remembering who she is, where she is or anything about her life. How terrifying! To help, her Doctor recommends keeping a video diary which she watches each day. As the days pass, she learns more and more about her husband and her life and records it privately while speaking to herself on camera. Her perceptions of her husband can change depending on what she learns that day.

How often do we all do this with the people around us? I began thinking about people I may not like until I find something out about them which softens my heart. Or when I’ve liked someone but rapidly changed my opinion of them when I’ve found out something about them which goes against my morals. How quickly our opinions can change!

Although I’ve never experienced amnesia, I did think about times when something so dramatic happens that our world becomes immediately distorted and changed, those times when the bottom has fallen out of your world and everything around you suddenly seems so different. Maybe when trying to cope with such dramatic change we see parts of ourselves we never knew, perhaps a darker side but also a strength in us we didn’t know we had. Each day, in small ways, we learn to cope with what is happening, as Christine does in the film by educating herself about who she is and the life she has.

I really liked that this film was in a typical British setting and included British actors. The story unfolded piece by piece as you followed Christine’s day to day struggle with amnesia and this gripped my attention throughout the whole film. I’d give this film 4 out of 5!