Disney
R4
DVD
The
I Inside is based on a screenplay called "Point of Death" by
co-screenwriter Michael Cooney and is an intriguing exploration of memory,
love, family squabbles and death.
Ryan
Phillippe plays wealthy heir Simon Cable who wakes up in hospital bed to find
he had been clinically dead for some minutes and has a form of amnesia. He
believes it is sometime in the year 2000 and that he is single and yet the
doctor tells him it is 2002 and that his wife is outside.
He
does not recognize his wife and she seems more than suspicious in her behaviour
and attitude, certainly she is unsympathetic. He also discovers he had a
mistress. He is told his brother has died in a car accident some years before
but he cannot remember that event either. As he is given various tests he finds
that things do not fit together and becomes increasing paranoid experiencing
strange flashes of memory. Slowly, Simon
realizes he is moving between the same hospital in the year 2000 (where he was
hospitalized for a car accident) and the present where he had landed after a
potential poisoning.
Simon
tries to piece together his life but cannot ascertain whether this is all an
elaborate attempt to trick information out of him (he has some doubts about his
own role in his brother’s death) or whether he really can move through time.
The
first thing you notice about The I Inside is the beauty of the cinematography,
it look absolutely superb. Hospital rooms meld into others from years before
and after, landscapes fold from one location to another – the fluidity with
which the scenes change is quite breathtaking and creates a real sense of
confusion.
This
is a deliberately puzzling film, it refuses to allow you to really pinpoint
what is happening until the very end and even then you will have some doubts. I
would have preferred a little more meaning to the film; at times it reminds me
too much of such other trick films as The Sixth Sense, when you know the secret
the film loses its potency.
At
the same time it is still an interesting film, intelligent, stylish,
beautifully filmed and superbly acted with brilliant performances from Ryan
Phillippe, Stephen Rea and others.
This
is not your run of the mill psychological thriller and will certainly keep you
scratching your head to the very end.
This review will appear in Volume 2 No.2
(2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.
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