Director/writer Till Osterland's "The Disappearance of Andy Waxman" (2004) is a beautifully composed, moving film that questions how well someone knowsor even wants to know the one he loves. Visually, the film is at once spare and clean, yet engaging and distinctive. Stephen Barker Turner and Rain Phoenix turn in powerful, nuanced performances as Andy and his fiancée Holly, adeptly conveying the intensity and complexity of their relationship.
Told in an appropriately episodic manner peppered with flashbacks, this film focuses on Andy Waxman, who has lost his ability to record new memories as a result of a car accident. He can, however, recall a cherished older memory: a nostalgic (literally rose-colored) memory of the day he got engaged to Holly. Andy seems convinced that his relationship with Holly is still what it was at that earlier moment. But we are given elusive clues that suggest something different: a strange man appears with whom Holly seems intimate; she seems inexplicably frustrated with Andy for reasons that seem to predate his accident, shouting at him at one point, "you never listen." Does Holly love him? Does she leave him? I'm not going to spoil the ending for you, because there is a twist, but let me just say that Andy *is* stubborn and he *doesn't* listen. He keeps Holly from leaving him, but in a way you'll never expect. A lovely and intelligent film that keeps you arrested as you watch and haunts you long after it's over.
Told in an appropriately episodic manner peppered with flashbacks, this film focuses on Andy Waxman, who has lost his ability to record new memories as a result of a car accident. He can, however, recall a cherished older memory: a nostalgic (literally rose-colored) memory of the day he got engaged to Holly. Andy seems convinced that his relationship with Holly is still what it was at that earlier moment. But we are given elusive clues that suggest something different: a strange man appears with whom Holly seems intimate; she seems inexplicably frustrated with Andy for reasons that seem to predate his accident, shouting at him at one point, "you never listen." Does Holly love him? Does she leave him? I'm not going to spoil the ending for you, because there is a twist, but let me just say that Andy *is* stubborn and he *doesn't* listen. He keeps Holly from leaving him, but in a way you'll never expect. A lovely and intelligent film that keeps you arrested as you watch and haunts you long after it's over.