New spin on a old tale, but Guy Pearce is wonderful

Rating: 7/10 (3 August 2011)

Another one of those films I came to with very high hopes after lots of personal recommendations and high plaudits in reviews etc. etc. etc. but came away slightly disappointed. Perhaps years of reading 'twist in the tale' novels by people like Jeffrey Deaver has made me more immured from excitement of this type of thing, I don't know. I didn't guess the ending, but then like an episode of Taggart, it didn't reveal sufficient plot details along the way to enable you to do this. On the other hand the punchline didn't knock me off my feet either. The best I can say about the story is that it was better than The Usual Suspects (and I did guess the end in that). I was disappointed that the writer or director felt the need to include a scene where a drink exposes just how goldfish-like the hero's memory is. We'd already established that and the scene added nothing to the story other than a eewww moment, but other than that, every little rewind of the story and extra exposure of the plot fitted and worked well. Still, at the end of it all, I couldn't help feeling so what? Guy Pearce filled a character without any depth with real depth. Partially helped by a great physique and some intriguing tattoos, although we knew almost nothing of his character other than his plight, you were driven to watch as he made an otherwise unbelievable character perfectly believable. Ultimately though, just because we believe he could be real, that isn't the same as caring what might happen to him and for all it's clever twisting, take away the superb performance of Guy Pearce and we're left with a rather gimmicky plot rather than a classic film.