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Trauma (2004)

DVD Cover (First Look Home Entertainment)
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Overall Rating 47%
Overall Rating
Ranked #6,303
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Shortly after waking up from a coma and discovering that his wife has been killed in a car accident, Ben befriends his beautiful young neighbor. But just as Ben begins to turn his life around, he is haunted by visions of his dead wife. --IMDb
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Review by Chad
Added: June 18, 2005
As the movie opens, we find that Ben (Colin Firth) and his wife Elisa (Naomie Harris) have been involved in a car accident that ended up putting Ben in a week-long coma and killing Elisa. We also find out that pop-singer Lauren Parris was murdered while Ben was in the coma and that her death has been the top news-story ever since. Ben is pretty much alone in his grief as a result of the general public being fascinated by the hunt for Lauren's murderer and Elisa's family wanting nothing to do with him, so Ben reunites with his old friend Tommy (Tommy Flanagan) and tries to get some painting work with him to take his mind off of things. Ben also slowly begins getting romantically involved with neighbor Charlotte (Mena Suvari), and indeed, things start to look up for our hero. However, these same things start to go horribly wrong and Ben's world comes crashing down when he starts to see glimpses of Elisa out of the corner of his eye and begins to get the feeling that she's still alive. He also quickly finds out that he's the prime suspect in the Lauren Parris murder case when Inspector Jackson (Kenneth Cranham) unexpectedly shows up at his flat. What follows is a confusing world where Ben isn't sure what's real and what isn't, and he's also not sure about who he can and can not trust.

What follows is a confusing world where Ben isn't sure what's real and what isn't. Yes, this is the theme for the movie, and not only does it cause Ben to be in an extremely confused state of mind for the last half of the film, but it also puts the home audience in the same state of mind thanks to everything being shown from his perspective. This is not one of those films where you can plainly tell what the character is imagining and what is actually taking place; no sir, everything that Ben thinks is real is portrayed as being real to the viewer as well. Depending on how you think a movie should be presented, this either works out wonderfully or results in one incredibly bad movie. What I mean is that Ben's paranoid and delusional outlook on life was portrayed very realistically, and we really felt what he was going through and how confused these events left him. However, there's a catch twenty-two there; since we feel the exact same state of confusion that he does, we feel the exact same state of confusion that he does. Until the last ten minutes of the film, we really have no idea what in the hell is going on... and even when all is finally revealed, we still don't get clued in on everything that transpired. I personally think that this approach worked out quite nicely, but if you're looking for a movie that requires no brain-power and spells out everything for you as it happens, this may not be the movie you're looking for.

As a result of this, the movie seems to move along at a slow pace. Things happen that seem to be out of place and really have no relevance to the actual storyline, and as a result, we're left to be both confused and a wee bit bored. However, things are revealed at the end that explains most of these scenes and in hindsight, makes them completely relevant. This is a neat revelation when everything comes out, but up until that point you may find yourself checking the time-remaining display on your DVD player.

Thankfully, however, the actors make these (initially) dull scenes much more tolerable with their excellent performances. Colin Firth, the star of the film, has a sizable fan-base and after seeing his performance here, I can understand why. He really played the part to perfection, and almost makes you forget that you're simply watching a character portrayal in a movie. He genuinely seems like the kind of guy who would be delusional, and his outward displaying of such never felt forced or fake. Definite thumbs up to this man. The rest of the cast, with the exception of one person, really doesn't get a whole lot of screen time... however, each one does a good job with their small part in the film, and (again) with the exception of one person, each one makes their respective scenes that much easier to watch. That one exception here would be co-"star" Mena Suvari. I'm not quite sure why she's involved with this British film, as she seems completely out of place both as the sole American involved with the movie and also as an actress. Her performance here is shoddy at best, and she really seemed like she was simply trying to get through her scenes as quickly as possible. It's actually pretty funny that the only person us Americans could clearly understand thanks to not having a thick accent is completely horrid as an actress. Ah well, can't win them all.

I'd recommend this to fans of thrillers who can watch a movie that requires some thinking and doesn't feel the need to spell out every last detail. Yes, it's pretty confusing as the storyline unfolds, but once you piece things together, it all makes sense and turns out to be a damned interesting movie. 7/10.
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