Amnesia (1997)

Thanks for the memories!

Good start, but then it gets ruined

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I caught this film the other night on one of the cable channels (Showtime, I think), and, though it has some bad points, it's solid overall. ***POSSIBLE SPOILERS*** The main problem with the film is Sally Kirkland, a great actress who fails to convince here in a comedic role. Her scene with Paul (Nicholas Walker) in which she calls him her "Romeo to my Juliet" and her "Marc Anthony to my Cleopatra" is poorly done. Her repeating of "douchebag b*tch" as she shoots at Dara Tomanovich is also strange. On to the okay--Tomanovich. She doesn't perform badly, but she doesn't set me on fire, either. Her scenes of supposed "outrage" (like when she learns of the $1 million insurance policy) don't convince, but her performance is serviceable. Then, we get to the good: Nicholas Walker. He isn't supposed to engender sympathy, and he sure doesn't! The scenes in which he tries (like his defending his wife after Tomanovich's desire for said wife to die) are unconvincing and turn a potentially very good performance in to a good one. The son (Vincent Berry) also is good, but he needed more emotion in his performance. And, now, on to the very good--Savage and Sheedy. Savage's portrayal is beautifully disgusting, and I'd have liked to have seen more of him, while Sheedy is convincing and sympathetic as the conned wife who finally has had enough. One thing: How does a minister get a $1 mil insurance policy? Overall, fairly well done.

This film has some seriously wasted talent, like the previous commenter said. The film would have been more decent had it had a better budget and storyline. It was a typical hallmark-style take on a murder mystery which wasn't a murder mystery, it was evident what would eventually happen .. predictable and the ending was rather callous, in that it was kind of demented. My favourite thing about the whole movie was the music at the beginning and end which i thought sounded extremely Australian outback-like, but also added some enigmatic atmosphere to the themes highlighted in the film itself, if that makes any sense.I got this film for $1 at Wal Mart and being from England and hoping to study film studies at Uni, I thought what better opportunity to study film than to buy a load of cheap digiview DVDs. I wasn't expecting amazing story lines and directing/acting, but this one was admittedly better than "Second Chance", which doesn't really do much justice to the cast and director at all. So here's my 5/10 rating for being ordinary yet reasonable.Mel x

Nicholas Walker is Paul, the local town Reverand who's married to Martha (Ally Sheedy), but also is a habitual womanizer and decides to fake his own death to run away with his current affair, Veronica (Dara Tomanovich). However in so doing, he gets a bout of amnesia (hence the name of the film). Sally Kirkland is also on hand as a crazy old coot who pines for the good Reverand in a shades of "Misery" type of way. It's sad to see a pretty good cast wasted like this. Not the least bit John Savage in a horridly forgettable role as a shoddy private investigator. In a film billed as a 'black comedy', one has to bring BOTH elements into said movie. While this does bring the former in spades, it sadly contains none of the latter. Furthermore you can't emphasize with any of the characters and as thus, have absolutely no vested interest in them. Technically not an all-together bad movie just an extremely forgettable one.Eye Candy: Dara Tomanovich gets topless; Sally Kirkland also shows some skin My Grade: C- Where I saw it: Showtime Showcase

I liked the movie a real lot. Wanted to see it just for Dara Tomanovich, but the plot and story were ok too. A very cool change in plot when you least expect it.