I INSIDE, THE: DVD

SYNOPSIS:
Simon Cable (Ryan Phillippe) wakes up one night in a hospital room, to be told by his doctor (Stephen Rea) he has been suffering from amnesia for the past two years. He then desperately tries to piece the pieces of his life together. There's the presence of Anna (Piper Perabo), the wife he did not know he had, the surprise death of his brother Peter (Robert Sean Leonard) and the mystery woman (Sarah Polley) with whom he is supposedly having an affair, and who suddenly disappears.

Review by Louise Keller:
An engrossing psychological thriller in which reality, fantasy, the present, the past and the future are confused, this Ryan Phillippe vehicle engages for its duration during which time our minds spin at whirlwind pace trying to keep up with the narrative. The story is based on Michael Cooney's play which he has adapted in chilling fashion. Phillippe has great presence and it is with commitment that we engage with his distraught Simon Cable who finds himself in hospital totally confused by his state and circumstances. In a tight 87 minutes, all the pieces in the obtuse puzzle finally find their way together, after a bewildering and often devastating journey in which sanity is questioned.

'These episodes usually sort themselves out,' says Stephen Rea's Dr Newman, when he tells his patient he has just lost two years of his life. 'The mind is a remarkable thing; perhaps it is trying to show you something you need to see.' Has he been poisoned? Is this a dream? Who is Anna (Piper Perabo), the wife he never knew he had? And who is Clair (Sarah Polley), the mysterious girl who promises some things just don't get lost. How can there be two realities - each two years apart? Is he guilty of murder? Has he been given hallucinatory drugs? What has happened and what is happening to him?

Our experience is as real that that experienced by Simon. The sequence when he is strapped up waiting for a MRI and when a blurry cloaked medical figure tries to inject him is terrifying. Everyone dies, says Travis (Stephen Graham), the hospital orderly; 'why and how everyone dies is probably the biggest mystery there is.' Much of the action plays out similarly to how we might imagine we experience a dream. Not all of it makes sense, but we are trapped in the reality and there is no escape. The eclectic music score is suitably claustrophobic as we are jerked from one reality to another flashing backwards and forwards from the hospital corridors to a beautiful home with a staircase and skylight. Ultimately, the message the film conveys is one about choice - this DVD thriller is a good one.

Published April 16, 2009