Simply superlative superior drama
A cadre of ageing acting legends are given an opportunity to shine, in what might well be one of the films of the year so far.
Christopher Plummer (The Sound of Music) is Zev Guttman, a rest home resident who every morning wakes up unable to remember his recent past. When we first meet him, he has to be reminded that his wife died two weeks ago.
Waiting for him at breakfast is Max Rosenbaum (Ed Wood’s Martin Landau), who jogs his memory that the breakfasts there are crummy, and hands him a letter with instructions for a trip he needs to take. ‘‘You’re the only one who can remember the face of the man who murdered our two families,’’ Auschwitz survivor Rosenbaum tells him, before ushering him to a waiting limo.
Then it’s off to a gun store (a hilarious and haunting scene, one of many which Egyptian-born, Canadian-based director Atom Egoyan uses to highlight America’s laughable gun and border-control laws), before boarding a plane for the first of potentially four destinations.
You see, with the help of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, Rosenbaum has managed to narrow down the new identity of their former tormentor to just a quartet, who all go by the name Rudy Kurlander.
What follows is a deliciously disorientating combination of Memento, Apt Pupil and Broken Flowers, as Guttman’s crosscontinental trek becomes increasingly complicated as he narrows down the suspects and begins to be missed back home.
Director Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter, Exotica) and screenwriter Benjamin August (previously best known for his work as a casting director on reality show Fear Factor) brilliantly combine to keep the audience guessing as to how this will all play out until the finale frames.
The impressive supporting cast includes European heavy-hitters Bruno Ganz (Wings of Desire) and Jurgen Prochnow (Das Boot), while Mychael Danna’s (Life of Pi) Hitchcockian score certainly adds to the film’s atmosphere and sense of growing tension.
A simply superlative, superior drama, well-worth seeking out.