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Trauma
Horror thriller starring Colin Firth as a man trying to recover from a car accident. From Marc Evans, director of My Little Eye
Ben (Firth) is not a happy chap. After coming out of coma, he blames himself for the death of his wife Elisa (Harris) in the accident. But his recovery process is confused by the fact that the entire nation is mourning the murder of a pop star, Lauren Parris. Ben himself is obsessing over Parris's death: he's compiling a scrapbook and has moved into a new apartment in a converted hospital near where her body was found in an east London canal. Despite being connected with the star - his wife was among her troupe of dancers - Ben also comes to the attention of the police, being interviewed by Inspector Jackson (Cranham) as a stalker and potential suspect. Ben really is addled. He thinks he sees something suspicious going on in the basement via CCTV ("the entrance to the old morgue"), he keeps seeing a figure in a snorkel parker (who the police are looking for), and he even believes he's seen Elisa. His feelings get even more mixed up when he meets Charlotte (Suvari), his "sort-of land lady". Not only are they attracted to each other but she takes him to gatherings hosted by a supposed psychic (Fricker). He's understandably freaked when she says "There's somebody in two minds here. So much death in this mind, so much death.... Ben - Elisa hasn't passed over." What the devil is going on? Director Marc Evans, whose last film was the tense, innovative My Little Eye, doesn't make things easy for the viewer. His tendency toward shifting focus, almost subliminal glimpses, snippets of CCTV, and a whole gamut of tricky techniques all reflect Ben's post-traumatic disorientation, steeping the film with the protagonist's troubled sensibilities. Firth does an excellent job of providing a dishevelled focus for this intriguing little psychological thriller cum horror drama. It's also a credit to his emotive performance - which dominates the film - that you sympathise with Ben even when you feel you can't trust him. Thematically Trauma is also interesting, though not entirely successful. The conceit of the death a pop star moving an entire nation isn't credible, partly because - despite how much people are weaned on tabloid celebrity culture these days - the notion of a British Madonna / Princess Di hybrid isn't entirely believable. It's a thoughtful comment on how we get caught up in the media's myth-making, and the displacement of emotions, but it's also a heavy-handed narrative device used to contrast the personal with the public, the real with the imagined etc. Evans and first time screenwriter Richard Smith also have something to say about survival guilt, about the formulation of personality (Ben has also been shaped by earlier traumas), as well as the failing of the health services. Ben is not just a man recovering from a coma who's grieving his wife, he's also mentally ill and needs support as such. But it seems unavailable, bar visits to a cryptic shrink. Melding psychological thriller elements with creepier aspects that may be supernatural, Trauma is in some ways as muddled as Ben himself. Although it has distinctions, it's also strangely familiar - especially in a scene that virtually recreates a famous sequence from Jacob's Ladder. Hitchcock and M Night Shyamalan are also definite frames of reference, amongst others. Evans is an adept director at creating atmosphere (ably assisted by Gladiator and Hannibal cinematographer John Mathieson) and disorientation. But the thriller and horror elements cancel each other out somewhat, so the intensity of the film is ultimately compromised by its slippery nature. Verdict An intriguing but not entirely satisfying film, featuring an impressive turn by Colin Firth. |
