Amnesia (2004) User Reviews

Big Plot Hole and Ridiculous Ending

[crumpytv · 7/10 · 11 April 2021]

A psychological thriller which is worth watching if you don't think too hard about the character with amnesia.

There is a double storyline which intertwines and keeps the viewing guessing about what is going on with the two male leads.

The ending is just too ludicrous. Was he an undisclosed channel swimmer?

Spoiler: What was the point of the amnesiac drawing attention to himself by walking into A&E and claiming he knew nothing about himself or his history. Why did he let himself be examined in a way that would show that he had no brain trauma?

With sufficient IT skills to be able to hack into just about anything, including banks, then why choose an altogether more risky way to commit fraud and embezzlement.

Plenty of Surprises Along the Way

[Uriah43 · 7/10 · 15 February 2013]

For some reason IMDb has this listed as a "romance" film. Well, I suppose there is a little of that but to me it seemed more like a mystery or crime-drama movie than anything else. Regardless, this is a very good film with a couple of interesting interwoven subplots throughout. Essentially, "Detective Mackenzie Stone" (John Hannah) suffers from a short-term lapse of memory involving an argument with his wife "Lucia Stone" (Beatriz Batarda) and now she has completely disappeared. He becomes frantic to find out what happened to her and turns to alcohol to escape his feelings of despair. Because of this his mind begins to play tricks on him as he starts having both hallucinations and flashbacks of his final moments with her and neither he (nor the audience) is able to figure out which are true and which aren't. At the same time, another man named "John Dean" (Anthony Calf) is suffering from long-term amnesia and cannot remember anything about his past. However, he has made a new life for himself and he and his new wife "Jenna Dean" (Jemma Redgrave) are very happy together. That is, until Detective Stone comes along. At any rate, rather than disclose any of the surprises in store for any new viewers I will just say that I just happened to check this out at my local library the other day on the spur of the moment and I'm glad I did. It had good acting, especially on the the part of John Hannah and Jenna Redgrave, and plenty of surprises along the way. One caution though, it does run a bit long (around 3 hours) so you might need to check your schedule to ensure there's room for it. But I think you'll be glad you did.

Two doubtful cases of amnesia running into each other

[clanciai · 8/10 · 16 September 2023]

One has lost his wife and never got over it and never could realise what really happened, but she is gone, that is all we and he knows about it, since no body was ever found, alive or dead, and the other one suffers from permanent amnesia since five years, or so it seems. There is something very fishy about both cases. The first one (John Hannah) in the line of duty as a police officer suspects the other one of being a murderer who killed his wife and stepson and keeps harassing him and his wife, claiming he is another person or has been another person. In the last five minutes all the mysteries seem to get their explanation which however leaves you with a load of question marks with no possible answers, since the rest is missing. You are left hanging on a cliff with nothing but your own speculations to help you out into further possibilities of tunnels in the labyrinth to nowhere...

just one thing (SPOILER)

[chowjoe · 25 October 2004]

I just watched this very well-made show on BBC America, liked it a lot, and 5 minutes later started scratching my head and went: Wait a minute... (SPOILER AHEAD) If John Dean does turn out to be such a baddie, why did he turn himself in as an amnesiac to begin with? Doesn't that open him up to investigation and getting found out? I think that, entertaining as this was (it was especially good to watch through in a 3-hour program), there may have been one too many switcheroos (good-bad-good-bad---) for the 2 main characters. For a change, wouldn't it have been nice if both ended up being decent blokes and lived happily ever after with their respective spouses, had double-dating barbecues together...

I won't give anything away, but.....

[mrshvd3 · 7/10 · 24 June 2022]

I won't give anything away, but.....this series really should have been continued beyond the ending, or else it should have had some sort of sequel. Talk about leaving you hanging.....

Certainly worth watching...

[R-T-C · 9/10 · 20 April 2004]

If you get a chance to see this 2-part TV show, then you certainly should.

Synopsis: (NO SPOILERS)

The story concerns police detective Mackenzie Stone whose wife disappeared a few years ago - and he who still recovering from the incident - experiencing weird dreams and the like. At the same time we are introduced to another man - John Dean, who is suffering from total amnesia, meaning that he remembers nothing of his past life before he turned up in hospital 5 years ago.

Mackenzie Stone, played by John Hannah becomes convinced that he knows who John Dean really is, that he is a man who dissapeared a few months before John Dean appeared - and that he murdered his family before hand to claim the insurance money. However, it starts to become apparant that DS Stone may well have killed his own wife...

In all this is a very good 2-parter with a very nice pay-off at the end. All the cast put on good performances, and it is all very believable.

Amnesia--What a punch!

[canuckteach · 10/10 · 14 October 2004]

John Hannah shines in anything he does. Amnesia had us on the edge for 3 episodes, since it showed over a 3-week period here on TVO! Patrick Malahide was also superb as his boss. What these guys can do with their facial expressions! (applies to rest of cast also).

General comment: British suspense-mysteries are compelling because the characters are so complicated. In fact, the cops are sometimes more messed-up than the guys they're trying to catch. The plot or the 'whodunit answer' is often secondary. If you try watching typical American CSI-type shows afterwards, they almost seem laughable.

What gives Amnesia such a punch is that it does have an intriguing plot and outcome also. The movie ends, but the story doesn't. Hope you enjoy as much as we did.

Added note: a few are questioning the conclusion or ultimate solution to the mystery. The Brits don't worry about whether the parameters of their plots are rational-they just want to surprise you! Stop worrying!

Excellent suspense film with interesting characters

[lynnarmit · 10/10 · 25 May 2006]

With great acting, superb writing, and well developed characters, this film is really good and will hold the interest of everyone. John Hannah gives us a desperate and tortured man who fights his inner demons. He is not even sure he didn't kill his wife. He is filled with rage, drink too much and is violent but... he loves her. Anthony Calf is brilliant. The change in his personality is wonderful. How could he change from being a sweet and lovely man to being a despicable murder? He did an excellent performance, a marvellous job. This film is a thriller with not explicit violence but with psychological depths and a good story line. I loved it.

Unsatisfying

[osbaba · 3/10 · 1 June 2020]

John Hannah is great as usual and is the only plus in this completely unbelievable plot. He gives a very convincing performance of a tortured soul unable to remember what happened on the night his wife disappeared.

The parallel story line of whether an amnesiac is faking a past life is thin beyond belief. If the person was covering up a past where he may have murdered his wife and kid, wouldn't he lay low instead of getting himself medically assessed? I don't have any medical background and don't know if you can spot lack of amnesia with a Cat Scan. But based on the other completely idiotic computer science claims I'd guess probably not. You can actually find out the printer model from a color printout (that was in fact the NSA traced Reality Winner as the leaker of a classified document she gave to a journalist). But you can definitely not find out which computer was used to create the document from a printout!!! And the HP5550 is not exactly a consumer printer. And you'd need NSA like hacking capability to change official bank records and Eurostars records. It's just too much. Add to that the original investigation of the death of a wife and kid was so slipshod, you'd not be out of line in thinking that if this was the standard of riminal investigation in Britain, crime would really pay.

If you have absolutely nothing better to do, watch it for John Hannah. Otherwise, there are a better shows to spend your time on.

keeps you guessing

[blanche-2 · 10/10 · 11 July 2015]

You'll come up with several different denouements for "Amnesia" - not sure if you'll get the right one.

The story concerns an amnesiac, John Dean (Anthony Calf) who is asked to take part in an experiment for a treatment that shows great promise. At first he refuses. He is not sure he wants to know about his past as he is happily married and has a good life, but he and his wife (Jemma Redgrave) need the money, so he agrees to do it.

DC Mackenzie Stone meanwhile is searching for his wife, who walked out on him a year ago. He has very little memory of what happened and why she took off, except for brief flashes and terrible nightmares. He constantly goes through missing person reports.

When he sees one for a Paul West, he thinks that West might be Dean and starts an investigation. He soon learns that Dean's wife and child were killed in a fire, and then West disappeared. Shortly after that, Dean showed up in their town.

Mackenzie's partner, Brendan Coyle, starts to think that Mackenzie may have killed his wife.

Mackenzie thinks that John Dean is Paul West and that West killed his wife and child and probably killed before.

So who's right? Are they both right? Both wrong? One right and one wrong?

Great story, with the actors' excellent work throughout a bonus. They are all terrific.

I saw this on Netflix - I recommend it highly.

Very surprising

[nyflgal · 9/10 · 15 June 2019]

Good story, nice twist & turns, entertaining & great cast

I'd Like Some Amnesia To Forget I Ever Saw This

[jabrbi · 3/10 · 13 August 2014]

This programme creates two intertwined story lines. One involves a detective whose wife apparently runs out on him on their 5th wedding anniversary and is not seen or heard from in the 3 months before the programme starts. The other story is about a man with apparent amnesia who MAY have murdered his wife and step child.

The detective falls apart, drinking heavily and starts to confuse fantasy and reality. Then he decides that two men appearing on two different Missing Posters are the same man, and this is the amnesiac man. The detective starts putting pressure on the amnesiac to admit who he is. Meanwhile other detectives begin to question whether the wife really ran away.

This programme relies heavily on amnesia, memory loss, memory gaps, hallucinations, twisted memories, unreliable remembrances. As such, nothing you see or hear can be relied upon. And therein lies the problem. There is nothing in this programme to get your teeth into. There are no reliable facts to hold on to. None at all.

Is the amnesiac a murderer? Is the detective a murderer? Has anyone actually been murdered? Does anyone care? Sure, it has the high production values of UK-based drama, with fine acting and a reasonable script, but the story just doesn't hold water and the over-use of unreliable memories makes the plot too fluid to be involving.

I lost count of the number of slamming doors when nobody was there, out of focus flashbacks, deliberately vague memories, seeing things that weren't there, mistaking one person for another, red herrings, over reactions and implausible coincidences. Everything is just too contrived to make sense.

Oh, and the computer skills ascribed to one of the characters is simply impossible.

Overall I found the plot simplistic, obvious and devoid of tension. If you don't bother to pay attention or think about what you're watching then you'll undoubtedly be surprised by the ending. Personally I knew the outcome less than 5 minutes into the programme.

A really disappointing programme.

Great beginning, terrible ending

[Laight · 2/10 · 23 December 2020]

Sorry to go there but, you'll kind of wish you had amnesia after watching this poorly constructed tv show that starts well but then becomes so darn predictable you can't wait for it to end. So forget about it.

So boring

[robdrummond · 4/10 · 9 August 2021]

Very silly indeed. Dont waste your time - watch paint dry instead.

Like a

[Headturner1 · 4/10 · 12 August 2020]

UK Lifetime movie. I thought this would be decent since Hanna's in it but it looked like something out of the 90's. I kept thinking I was watching an old lifetime movie the whole time with the calls all scrambled , him yelling" leave me alone", the cheezy car chase thinking it was her. Also what was with the big glob of her blood under the carpet? Tho the really cheezy part was the boat scene hahaaha. It was ok as an old lifetime type movie but don't compare it to Broadchurch or anything of that level.

Dark

[mikestevens38 · 1/10 · 27 February 2021]

Why is it so dark? Poor direction and production. The story I would be suitable for a Radio programme.

What is this weird language?

[CineCineCineCine · 2/10 · 3 April 2021]

Less than 9 minutes into the 1st episode, I'm struck like by thunder by this incredible computer image shown on the screen: under the English sentence "Brussels missing person database" a sentence appears, allegedly a translation, saying: "Databas du Bruxelle a la loste personne". As a professional translator, I was first horrified, then curious and tried to see if this was Esperanto or Romanian, since it wasn't any language known to me, and in any case, none of the languages spoken in Belgium, where I've lived for many years.

Is this a joke by the production team? How on Earth did they find such an absurd translation into an imaginary language?

Of all the many linguistic absurdities I've seen in films, this one is the absolute winner.

By the way, I'm watching this on Acorn in Spain, and it's really a shame that the only subtitles available are in Spanish; English subtitles are missing in all the series and films in this platform.

Lesson learned

[lotekguy-1 · 4/10 · 16 March 2022]

I've seen enough of John Hannah's FINE work to give consideration to any show with him in a leading role. This psychological wannabe thriller exemplifies the need for further inquiry. At least this screenplay, replete with logical flaws up to and including its ridiculous ending, only lasted two hours.

I see this was one of 5 nominees for a 2005 Poe Award. How lame must that year's #6 have been?