The Lost Patient

This is a fascinating but also very intricate film. Main character Thomas awakes in a hospital after having been 3 years in coma, ever since he was found severely wounded as the only surviver amidst his murdered family. Along with Thomas we try to find out what happened, why it happened, and who was responsible. The movie continuously provides tiny fragments, that are alternately short realistic flashbacks or Thomas's interpretations thereof, or they are the product of his imagination or delusions. We see a psychiatrist patiently trying to help him to get his memory back. Very gradually the harsh truth begins to dawn on him and on us, although I have to admit that for a long time I did't see the major plot twist and the ultimate conclusion coming.

The acting of especially Txomin Vergez is really excellent, the movie is slow paced but the tension never sags, and it kept me on the edge of my chair until the very end. It was a great relief that the story came up in the end with the needed answers (in nowadays cinema there's a pretentious tendency to keep you dangling in some sort of limbo at the end of a mystery movie!), but there were still some things that eluded me: why was the psychiatrist walking with a crutch? What was the function of fellow patient Bastien? They seemed to be both victims of an accident, so maybe that was it?

Anyway: an impressive and intriguing, well acted movie that stayed in my head for a long time.