The Fifth Patient is a super awesome amnesia thriller, in the tradition of The Bourne Identity. It stars Nick Chinlund (in one of his rare lead roles) as John Reilly, an American who awakens in a remote rural hospital somewhere in Africa, with no memory of who he is, how he got there or what's going on. A local military official (Isaach De Bankolé) interrogates him, believing that he works for the CIA. He has several visitors including a woman who claims to be his wife (Marley Shelton) and a former colleague (Henry Czerny). Gradually he pieces together the fragments of his damaged mind and suddenly has memories of being involved in a terrorism plot, planting seeds of doubt and causing him to suspect he isn't who they think he is at all. Now all he can trust are his instincts, wary of everyone around him and unsure of his own past. It's a serpentine story with hefty work from Chinlund who handles all facets of the character superbly, including some third act surprises. Sometimes these type of thrillers fall apart at the seams in the conclusion, tripping over the rug they're trying to pull out from the audience in terms of plot points. Not this one. It's well constructed and makes concise sense of its story right up to the last frame. Also watch for work from Brendan Fehr, Olek Krupa as a mysterious Russian prisoner and the great Peter Bogdanovitch in a nearly unrecognizable turn. Now, I'm fairly certain that this one was never officially released back in 2007, because you literally cannot find it anywhere, it doesn't have a legit poster and even seems nonexistent in some databases. Years ago it popped up on Netflix canada for about a month, thus ending my tedious quest to see it. You'd think that such a solid film with the prolific actors in it would have been treated better, but for one reason or another, it's been forgotten. Hopefully one day a distributor will pick it up, because it's quite the well made, entertaining thriller with a crackling lead performance.
