Sadly Over-hyped

Good start, but then it gets ruined

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

You'll come up with several different denouements for "Amnesia" - not sure if you'll get the right one.The story concerns an amnesiac, John Dean (Anthony Calf) who is asked to take part in an experiment for a treatment that shows great promise. At first he refuses. He is not sure he wants to know about his past as he is happily married and has a good life, but he and his wife (Jemma Redgrave) need the money, so he agrees to do it.DC Mackenzie Stone meanwhile is searching for his wife, who walked out on him a year ago. He has very little memory of what happened and why she took off, except for brief flashes and terrible nightmares. He constantly goes through missing person reports. When he sees one for a Paul West, he thinks that West might be Dean and starts an investigation. He soon learns that Dean's wife and child were killed in a fire, and then West disappeared. Shortly after that, Dean showed up in their town.Mackenzie's partner, Brendan Coyle, starts to think that Mackenzie may have killed his wife.Mackenzie thinks that John Dean is Paul West and that West killed his wife and child and probably killed before.So who's right? Are they both right? Both wrong? One right and one wrong?Great story, with the actors' excellent work throughout a bonus. They are all terrific.I saw this on Netflix - I recommend it highly.

This programme creates two intertwined story lines. One involves a detective whose wife apparently runs out on him on their 5th wedding anniversary and is not seen or heard from in the 3 months before the programme starts. The other story is about a man with apparent amnesia who MAY have murdered his wife and step child.The detective falls apart, drinking heavily and starts to confuse fantasy and reality. Then he decides that two men appearing on two different Missing Posters are the same man, and this is the amnesiac man. The detective starts putting pressure on the amnesiac to admit who he is. Meanwhile other detectives begin to question whether the wife really ran away.This programme relies heavily on amnesia, memory loss, memory gaps, hallucinations, twisted memories, unreliable remembrances. As such, nothing you see or hear can be relied upon. And therein lies the problem. There is nothing in this programme to get your teeth into. There are no reliable facts to hold on to. None at all.Is the amnesiac a murderer? Is the detective a murderer? Has anyone actually been murdered? Does anyone care? Sure, it has the high production values of UK-based drama, with fine acting and a reasonable script, but the story just doesn't hold water and the over-use of unreliable memories makes the plot too fluid to be involving.I lost count of the number of slamming doors when nobody was there, out of focus flashbacks, deliberately vague memories, seeing things that weren't there, mistaking one person for another, red herrings, over reactions and implausible coincidences. Everything is just too contrived to make sense.Oh, and the computer skills ascribed to one of the characters is simply impossible.Overall I found the plot simplistic, obvious and devoid of tension. If you don't bother to pay attention or think about what you're watching then you'll undoubtedly be surprised by the ending. Personally I knew the outcome less than 5 minutes into the programme.A really disappointing programme.

I just watched this very well-made show on BBC America, liked it a lot, and 5 minutes later started scratching my head and went: Wait a minute... (SPOILER AHEAD) If John Dean does turn out to be such a baddie, why did he turn himself in as an amnesiac to begin with? Doesn't that open him up to investigation and getting found out? I think that, entertaining as this was (it was especially good to watch through in a 3-hour program), there may have been one too many switcheroos (good-bad-good-bad---) for the 2 main characters. For a change, wouldn't it have been nice if both ended up being decent blokes and lived happily ever after with their respective spouses, had double-dating barbecues together...

John Hannah shines in anything he does. Amnesia had us on the edge for 3 episodes, since it showed over a 3-week period here on TVO! Patrick Malahide was also superb as his boss. What these guys can do with their facial expressions! (applies to rest of cast also). General comment: British suspense-mysteries are compelling because the characters are so complicated. In fact, the cops are sometimes more messed-up than the guys they're trying to catch. The plot or the 'whodunit answer' is often secondary. If you try watching typical American CSI-type shows afterwards, they almost seem laughable. What gives Amnesia such a punch is that it does have an intriguing plot and outcome also. the movie ends, but the story doesn't. hope you enjoy as much as we did.