Engima: (n.) a puzzling or inexplicable occurrence or situationAmnesia: The James Brighton Enigma, is just that. An enigma. While at once

puzzling in its lack of an assured ending, it also boasts a laundry list of fictional assumptions that make this “true story” nothing more than a fantasy. And a grim one at that.

Based on a real life event, Amnesia tells the story of an American man who wakes up in a Montreal parking lot, naked and beaten. Going to the police for help, he soon discovers he has complete amnesia except for knowing two things: that his name is James, and that he is gay. Getting immediate help from the gay community, James eventually finds himself on a “Hard Copy”-like show that tells his story to an astounded public. Eventually, he is identified by his family as Georgia born and bred Matthew Honeycutt. Within hours, he is arrested for faking his identity.

It’s all a bit odd, even though what I’ve relayed above is the true stuff. (Except he wasn’t beaten.) The information I found on the internet doesn’t give much more than the fact that the gay community still supported him and believed in his amnesia, and that Matthew eventually went home to his family.

And herein lies the problem. In order to give some explanation as to what led to Matthew’s amnesia, we are given a random backstory about him leaving his bible-thumping family, finding the love of his life on the road, picking up three stranded straight guys, and eventually being forced to participate in a murder. Huh? If I were the real Matthew Honeycutt, I’d sue. (And if it’s true, he should be in jail.) Furthermore, the murder, and the fact that there is this dead man lying somewhere in near the Canadian border is never dealt with aside from one flashback. In fact, it just made me think the main character was kind of icky. Not to mentionÉ if you and your new lover pick up three obnoxious, intoxicated straight guys, would you REALLY tell them you were on your way to the “biggest gay rave” in the country? I mean please. It’s like they were wearing a sign that said, “Please! KICK my ass!”

I’ll give the movie this: the concept is interesting and I was curious to see how the true story turned out. But as it dragged on at a longer-than-it-seemed 90 minutes, I started to doubt much of the explanation for what happened to Matthew. And now that I know that much of the “reasons” for what happened were made upÑand not so flattering- the movie simply left me with a feeling of “yuck.”

What is interesting, is that the film and the real case mentions the gay rave that occurred in Montreal the night before Matthew woke up in the parking lot. However, he was found to have no drugs in his system, and no sign of physical trauma. He just couldn’t remember anything about his life. Now THAT is fascinating. And if you’re going to make up some conclusions about what happened to him, why not go with the alien abduction angle or something? By adding the beating and the homophobic angle, the explanation felt a bit pat and weird. Not that alien abduction wouldn’t be weird, but quite honestly, it seemed like a more logical explanation, considering the circumstances.

As for the cast, Dusan Dukic, who plays James/Matthew, is a one note performer. While not bad to look at, his expressions consist of dazed and confused, to rattled and confused. It’s one thing to portray someone who is obviously lost in the world, but after a while there isn’t much else going on and I started to not care anymore. And with the reveal of the murder, I really just didn’t like him.

Other performances range from okay to “community theatre production.” Cinematography is nice, but cold and flat.

All in all, a misguided effort of an interesting, true case.

Rating:

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