September 12, 2006

Unknown White Male

Reviewer: Erin Donovan
Rating (out of 5): **½

A British man wakes up one morning on a subway in Brooklyn with a headache and no memory of who he is. His backpack contains a few odds and ends but no identification. He turns himself into the police who
send him to a psychiatric ward where he's told he can't leave until someone recognizes him and picks him up. Eventually a woman he dated briefly (who doesn't seem to care much for him) comes to collect him. He arrives to his enormous Manhattan loft where he slowly excavates hundreds of hours of videotapes that make up his forgotten life. He learns his name is Doug Bruce. He's rich, well-traveled and after visiting a procession of neurologists, endocrinologists and psychologists he learns no one can conclusively state where his memory has gone.

Rupert Murray's occasionally fascinating but uneven documentary Unknown White Male asks the questions, What does memory loss feel like and how can a person reconstruct their life based on moments filtered through a camera? It's a noble ambition but these ideas seem fairly out of the reach of a director who asks three different times in voiceover whether or not he and his former friend - Douglas Bruce, the subject of the film - will still like each other.

Early on, the film posits that many people think the entire memory loss is a scam. The cracks in the Bruce family's British austerity are too narrow to tell either way and the director, who has little reason to doubt his friend, opts to focus on connecting the viewer with Doug's constant sense of frustration, exhilaration and confusion.

The most memorable scenes of Unknown White Male lie in Bruce's (re)discoveries: a frantic phone call to his sister to tell her about this thing called "chocolate mousse cake," falling in love with
rock 'n' roll, diving into the ocean and visiting The Metropolitan Museum of Art. These moments are captured beautifully with interlaced time-lapse, found footage and testimonials from friends.

Ultimately the film does succeed in demonstrating how someone cocooned in wealth reintegrates himself into our crazy, modern world whilst nuzzling every morsel, and as a study in just how far one has to go to slough off their less attractive friends, snag a model girlfriend and shake up the New York art scene. The DVD extras address many of the medical and logistical questions that arise during the film. There's an interview with Bruce's neurologist, extended interviews with his friends and family, a making of featurette and a brief interview with Bruce about the immediate impact the documentary has brought to his life.

See also: Tarnation, Sound & Fury, Shock Corridor, Memento, The Man Who Fell to Earth.

What do you think? Comment below after you watch the DVD.

Posted by cphillips at September 12, 2006 2:00 PM
Comments

Erin's review is true to much of the movie but I think offers no mention of the philosophical aspects of this odd and surprising film that asks a question 99.99% of us will never have the chance to answer: what if my life simply stopped dead-middle and I had to start over. As one line nicely puts it (or something close to this): he's become a child again while equipped with an adult's body and skills.
I have heard that some people consider the entire film a scam because it could simply be a put-on. Perhaps, but even if taken as fiction, this "story" of how a man loses his entire memory (save the motor skill of writing his own name) is still such a marvelous philosophical challenge that is cannot but engage inquiring minds.
Another interesting point: the "leading man" appears to have changed drastically from post-memory-loss to present. That change involves a noticeable move toward or acceptance of his feminine nature. Perhaps, as a gay man, I am reading more into this than is there. But I don't think so. The change is major. And it makes him quite appealing to the women in his life (sister, friends, mate): a sexually equipped fellow who can both pleasure his mate and identify with her and her kind in all sorts of important ways. Despite its somewhat slow and rocky start, the movie grows into something rather special and important.

Posted by: James van Maanen at September 12, 2006 10:06 PM

hey James, nice to finally "meet" you.

You know, I thought Doug's personality changes were interesting as well, but I didn't really see it as being a feminine change so much as a less cynical one. And ultimately, if we lost all our past experiences and were plunged into a world where there was essentially no "real world worry" (I'm totally downplaying his emotional struggles but seriously, nice apartment, Doug!) where everything was mousse cake and easily impressionable models I think we'd all have significant personality changes.

I agree it doesn't really matter if Doug Bruce faked his amnesia, there's still an emotional experience to be had here. I'm just not sure if that episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer where Buffy "realizes" her whole life has been a schizophrenic delusion was not done in a much more compelling way.

Posted by: Erin at September 14, 2006 9:51 PM

And nice to meet you finally, too, Erin! I liked the original Buffy movie but never saw any of the TV shows, so I can't comment on your last comment (it is funny, though!) And yes, Mr. Memory Loss' lifestyle is rather a fine one, truth to tell. Yet, the fact that Bruce's amnesia and starting over COULD be real takes it to a different level than literally anything Ms. Buffy and her scriptwriters pile on us. Right? Or am I giving more weight to the documentary format than it deserves or can handle?

Posted by: James van Maanen at September 21, 2006 8:09 PM

Or am I giving more weight to the documentary format than it deserves or can handle?

I think yes, but I'm glad you enjoyed UWM so much! But for goodness sake get on those Buffy dvds like, yesterday!

Posted by: Erin at September 23, 2006 3:55 PM