![]() The film ends (spoiler alert) with Barrymore’s character never getting her memory back. Look, I really tried to watch this movie, several times, and couldn’t get through it: Adam Sandler plays a commitment-phobic veterinarian who falls in love with a whimsical bohemian (Drew Barrymore) with no short-term memory. When, years after my accident, people learned about my amnesia, they’d frequently ask, “Oh, like 50 First Dates?” and chuckle. “About a year ago, Lucy was in a terrible car accident - she lost her short-term memory …” There’s no mystery to be solved just go along for the ride. Dreamy-slash-nightmare-y David Lynch is truly just what the doctor ordered when you have amnesia: disjointed narratives. Also, someone might be trying to kill her. (Rita has bigger concerns than forgotten lovers.) Following a car accident, she wanders through Hollywood in the wee hours, carrying a purse full of hundred-dollar bills and a triangle-shaped key to who knows what. Mulholland DriveĪ glorious exception to my “ 50 First Dates rule,” Mulholland Drive is one of my all-time favorite films, and not only because the protagonist is an amnesiac without boyfriend problems. If he stops trying to find out who he is, what a nice, unencumbered life he could have on an island somewhere. At a certain point in the movie, our hero embraces his state and amnesia becomes his superpower, freeing him from his past. The people around you don’t have amnesia everyone knows everything except for you. The thing about amnesia is this: You’re the only one without the answers. The first and, let’s be honest, best film in the Bourne series. He has no idea how he got there, or that he is really a trained assassin (see also: Total Recall). The Bourne IdentityĪn Italian fishing boat picks up a bullet-ridden amnesiac (Matt Damon) floating in the sea. Watching it with a head injury gives one hope - if Schwarzenegger can piece together his true identity, so can we all. It’s a solid action movie, with dated but still-entertaining special effects and a quintessentially ‘80s vision of the future. ![]() It stars a young Arnold Schwarzenegger as Douglas Quaid (if that’s even his real name), a construction worker who may or may not be a secret agent traveling back and forth to Mars. Why is it that in virtually every movie where a man loses his memory, he discovers that his true identity is that of a trained assassin, secret agent or spy, (see also: The Bourne Identity), but when an onscreen woman loses her memory, she just forgets who her boyfriend is (see also: 50 First Dates - or rather, don’t see it)? Total Recall, at least, belongs in the former category. “You’ve got to help me remember … People are trying to kill me.” Sudden lapses, disorientation, nonlinear developments - everything made perfect sense. But on my second viewing, when I had amnesia, the reverse chronology and intentional story gaps worked! Because my brain was operating the same way. When I first saw Memento in the theater with a friend, we endlessly post-gamed, trying to make sense of the chronology. As he investigates her murder, he tattoos information and clues on his body so he won’t forget them. It’s the tale of a man with short-term memory loss trying to find his wife’s killer. The mother of all amnesia movies, Memento begins at the chronological end of the story and ends at the beginning. “I guess I already told you about my condition.” Here are five of my favorite movies about amnesia, to watch if you ever have amnesia. Something about seeing other people try to piece together their identities, just like I had to do, made me feel less alone. I couldn’t always follow the storylines I watched the movies over and over, rediscovering them anew each time. The idea came to me abruptly, and I asked friends to cull titles. One of the few comforts I found was watching movies about amnesia. Pieces of memories returned, which only highlighted what was still missing. At first, the detachment was oddly peaceful I literally had no cares. My apartment was filled with clues to the life I had before my accident - the sweet, affectionate long-haired cat whose name I didn’t know, notes on my desk from the last story I’d written for work.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |