Trauma (2004)

Too much of everything

brilliant actors, brilliant editing

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

I am a big fan of the genre "Trauma" belongs to (the psychological / what-the-hell-is-really-happening? thriller), but I found this movie to be mostly a slog. It's slow-moving, dreary, and entirely humorless. There is A LOT of footage of Colin Firth moping around, and A LOT of information concerning a parallel plot line about the murder of a female singer / pop star; the twists of the plot near the end render most of the time devoted to those things above wasted! Speaking of twists, some of them (the wife....) are unbelievable, some of them (the psychiatrist....) are predictable. Colin Firth's strong performance is "Trauma"'s main - some would say only - asset. ** out of 4.

I don't believe in censorship, but I do believe in consequences. How's this for an idea: take a generic male character, give him some sympathetic circumstances, slowly add "character" by revealing at a snail's pace nothing but at best irritating instincts and characteristics, then pull a long-telegraphed whammy by undoing the sympathetic circumstances, then have him do something truly disgusting, then have him watch some TV.Or, how about this: just film your own bowel movement? Same difference, and you could have saved us a lot of time.There is not one positive thing to say about this experience, other than I'm hoping it will prove to have been carcinogenic, and that mercifully I'll die soon and the painful memory of having sat through this visual bile along with it. I understand that studios have budgets they have to spend, or they'll get smaller budgets the next year. Dear BBC: next time, buy crack with your end-of-fiscal-year surplus. Do something at least plausibly worthwhile with your cash. How they found a Colin Firth lookalike to sleepwalk through this tripe begs the question as to why they would want to in the first place.

Awaking from a coma to discover his wife has been killed in a car accident, Ben's world may as well have come to an end...The focus of this film is Ben (Colin Firth), whose world is a bit of a shambles. He does not always know what he knows, or may see things he does not really see. Unfortunately for me, I do not feel the film made this clear enough to really get a handle on.The most disappointing thing about this film is the lack of Mena Suvari. She is on the cover, and is the reason I picked up the title. But, you know, she is in it less than a quarter of the time. That let me down. She needed more speaking parts, and not just because Firth's accent is too thick at times.

I knew not of this movie's existence until catching a viewing on the fantastic Independent Film Channel late one night. I was drawn into the story with wonderful acting by all that participated. The movie has a few twists & turns, but is easily followed. I felt empathy for the main character's apparent situation. Mena Suvari's performance was beautiful, & though I have watched her good performances in other films, this role could have been performed no better. She was perfect! I am now a Colin Firth fan as well. He too, was brilliant in his role. Unfortunately, this film is a little known treasure. Thank goodness for the Independent Film Channel for providing viewers an opportunity to see films that are not main stream commercial giants, but just as good, if not better. This movie did not rely on state of the art special effects. This film was driven by a good story, & great performances.