Shattered

Shattered is involving, even when it's clear that the plot twists and turns are headed inexorably for dumbsville. In a story out of 1940s noir, Berenger plays an architect who, after a terrible car accident and reconstructive surgery, has no memory of who he was. As he attempts to build a new life with his wife, Scacchi, it seems he's closely related to the eponymous hero of Regarding Henry but as the pieces of his broken memory begin to come together, they don't add up and Berenger's chance at a new beginning gets pretty dicey. Berenger discovers that he doesn't much like the person he used to be and he has his doubts about his friend and business partner, Bernson. Bernson's wife, Whalley-Kilmer, seems to harbor more than the usual amount of affection for him, but she says very bad things about her old friend Scacchi. So it's no wonder that Berenger turns to an eccentric pet shop owner/detective, Hoskins, who turns up when Berenger starts poking through the rubble of his past life. The absolutely great conceit here is that everyone, absolutely, everyone he comes in contact with, knows more about Berenger than he knows about himself. Petersen, whose career has been all over the map in terms of genre including Das Boot, The NeverEnding Story and Enemy Mine has a fine touch with suspense but loses it in the clinches. Believe it or not, when his characters approach orgasm he cuts to crashing waves. This technique makes considerably more sense when working in a repressed era that doesn't allow much to be shown visually. It's a little silly to combine visual metaphors and nudity. Another metaphor that Petersen uses works better: beautiful shattering glass, the last thing Berenger sees as his old life ends and his new life begins. Unfortunately, Petersen cuts to waves and breaking glass everytime the story gets a little dumb, so they start coming hot and heavy in the last third of the film. Like so many suspense films, the answers are only a surprise in that we're expected to believe them. Leave your brain in the car and you'll have a good time.