Israeli video artist Omer Fast is known for installation works dealing with the psychology of trauma; the blurring of memory and the manipulation of time through the use of repetition, looping and reenactment. For his debut feature, premiered during last year’s London Film Festival, he has found a perfect literary match. Tom McCarthy’s third novel, ‘Remainder’, shares many of his habitual themes through the story a young man struggling to put his life together after a severe accident has left him suffering from amnesia.
Tom Sturridge gives a convincing performance as the emotionally detached, morally ambiguous victim, sustaining the film’s ambitious premise. We witness his trouble adapting to a disorienting reality that no longer makes sense and his lack of trust for those ones that suddenly reappear. Among them, a girlfriend and his best friend with whom he forms an oddly cold triangular bond whose nature is not entirely revealed. The intimacy of their relationships seems to be difficult to re-ignite. We follow the storyline as experienced by the protagonist trying to fit the pieces of his puzzling new situation, filmed by restricting the field of vision and using short focus to makes us share his narrow sense of perception. Extreme close-ups help visualize his inner turmoil. The sound design and the experimental electronica of Berlin musician Schneider ™, playing bodily rhythms such as heart beats and ear ringings, greatly enhance the claustrophobic atmosphere.
The film then explores the idea of every individual being the author of his own destiny. The protagonist’s initial alienation gives way to an obsession for rediscovering himself. Having being paid a multimillion pound compensation he decides to use that money to re-enact the few fragmented thoughts from his past he can still recall. Acting like he has become the director of a new “production about his life”, this recreation brings some sense of purpose to his existence and helps him find a new comfort zone, built from the remains of his former one, in which he can resume his personal history, on hold since the accident. Mirroring the process of developing a stage play, the meticulous reconstruction of the building he remembers begins with drawings and cardboard replicas and ends up when state agent Naz locates and buys it, recruiting a whole cast of actors to play his neighbours in perfect detail.
Once a basic sketch of his identity is back in place, the re-enactment of memories expands to recent, post-trauma events as an instinctive way to keep on restoring his personality, among them, the robbery of the bank one of his neighbours was accused of in the news. Playing now with our temporal expectations, from this inflection point ‘Remainder’ morphs into a heist film where the lead character is no longer rebuilding his past, but ultimately shaping his future. His obsession grows more violent and more determined to reproduce facts just as they happened in reality. The Bank robbery preparations include the building of a set that will be replaced by the actual location and hiring an experienced ex-con and a group of four robbers, whose white plastic overalls look like a tribute to ‘A Clockwork Orange’ droogos. The crime elements merely hinted until now (robbery; suitcase with money; corrupt policemen on the case; etc…) come to the fore, taking the form of a self-fulfilling prophesy as the plan goes out of control. Inside the bank the gathering of several pivotal characters – his girlfriend; the kid from the recurrent thoughts; the policemen – provides a moment of final enlightenment, after which the film’s circular structure returns to the point where it all began. A brain teasing conclusion that leaves many questions unanswered.
‘Remainder’ works as a competent psychological thriller, thanks to an engaging multi layered plot that leaves plenty of room for interpretation. Structured as a loop, the action moves backwards and forwards, the scenes shift between thought and reality building up a confusing sense of déjà-vu. Every newly revealed piece of the puzzle feels disturbingly familiar, yet it helps to deepen the central mystery, rather than clarifying it. The ideas it explores also share that déjà-vu feeling and often remind us of recent works exploring similar territory. The way ‘Memento’ deals with amnesia is an obvious comparison. Also, the protagonist’s buying a whole building where to reenact his thoughts recalls Charlie Kaufman’s “Synecdoche, New York”. Omer Fast balances well the novel’s philosophical ideas and fictional conventions, yet the director seems to be more interested in the psychological aspects than in generic thrills, and when dealing with the former the film is at its most accomplished. He does not totally indulge in the sleek aesthetics the works of Christopher Nolan or David Fincher have made us expect from this popular subgenre. Instead, a more natural visual approach perfectly suits his main concern, taking us inside the mind of a main character who, having lost his identity, creates a new narrative for his life.