Thursday, March 10, 2011

The Man without a Past

This Finnish film chronicles the story of a guy who gets beat up while traveling in an unfamiliar city. We don't know anything about him, except that he had a welding facemask in his luggage. Unfortunately, the guy doesn't know anything about himself either. He lost his memory in the beating. However, he is a pretty upbeat guy and finds a place to live in a squatters village (in a shipping container) and makes a friend in the local Salvation Army staff office. Without being too concerned about why he doesn't remember anything, or what might be important about his past, he goes on with his life an develops new relationships, friends and interests. Perhaps a good look at how an existentialist would approach memory loss. The film plays out slowly and feels really long, but never do you feel like you want to quit watching. I will leave it to you to determine if that makes it a good film or a poor film.
3 stars (out of 5)