The most intriguing thing about this film is the title which would lead any curiosity seeker to view it based on the sparsity of reviews and the always intriguing subject of amnesia. The story is apparently a well known one and appeared on the HARD COPY reality TV show several times and is the sort of film whose story of a young, attractive man found in the middle of a seedy part of Montreal stark naked who has no idea who he is and only knows he is gay and the name James Brighton. An irresistible idea for a film which would appeal to both gay and straight audiences, but the good looking amnesiac makes for all the right stuff for the Film Festival circuit. Unfortunately, that's how it comes off. The nude young man is carrying a torn piece of paper with a town name and phone number without an area code.There are only a minimal of places one could have found it and that is not explained. Nor is why they never comb the United States area codes? He speaks English, but for some reason teach him French when he is in rehabilitation and where he meets a variety of people who do and don't believe his story and a young lady who is writing a thesis on the human mind. Just when you think he might be attracted to her, we see her in bed with a black, hip chick who thinks he is pulling a fast one on the world. Why intimate the attractive researcher was gay/bi? The main strength the film has is that it keeps you wondering just what his story really is, and it becomes apparent to me, that his life was so damned dull I would have checked out and gotten lost too. In the hands of a master film maker like Hitchcock, this film would have been one of his least favorites unless he let his wife rewrite the young man's life, make the young lady a silky blonde and have the amnesiac recover his memory while hanging from the Eiffel Tower.
Review of Amnesia: The James Brighton Enigma
