Trauma *½ (2004, Colin Firth, Mena Suvari, Kenneth Cranham, Naomie Harris, Dorothy Duffy) – Classic Movie Review 2153

Director Marc Evans’s 2004 thriller stars Colin Firth as Ben, who wakes up from a coma after a car crash to find that his wife is dead, and he starts hallucinating. A few weeks later, Ben is out of hospital trying to have a new life. A young mystery woman, his beautiful young neighbour Charlotte (Mena Suvari), comes into his life and so does a cop, Detective Constable Jackson (Kenneth Cranham), who starts hounding him.

It is good to see Colin Firth bravely tackling a psychological thriller set in London’s Hackney, and, with the whole film more or less to himself, he’s sure up for it, looking suitably crazy, dishevelled and hard-up (though still speaking in his trademark monotone posh voice!).

But, alas, the screenplay by Richard Smith lets him down in this annoying, pretentious puzzle movie that starts intriguingly then gradually proves a bit of a waste of time. Fans of the same director’s My Little Eye (2002) may well want to turn a blind eye to this baffling curiosity.

Naomie Harris, Tommy Flanagan, Sean Harris, Brenda Fricker and Garry Tubbs are in the good cast.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2153

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