Very well executed

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

This programme creates two intertwined story lines. One involves a detective whose wife apparently runs out on him on their 5th wedding anniversary and is not seen or heard from in the 3 months before the programme starts. The other story is about a man with apparent amnesia who MAY have murdered his wife and step child.The detective falls apart, drinking heavily and starts to confuse fantasy and reality. Then he decides that two men appearing on two different Missing Posters are the same man, and this is the amnesiac man. The detective starts putting pressure on the amnesiac to admit who he is. Meanwhile other detectives begin to question whether the wife really ran away.This programme relies heavily on amnesia, memory loss, memory gaps, hallucinations, twisted memories, unreliable remembrances. As such, nothing you see or hear can be relied upon. And therein lies the problem. There is nothing in this programme to get your teeth into. There are no reliable facts to hold on to. None at all.Is the amnesiac a murderer? Is the detective a murderer? Has anyone actually been murdered? Does anyone care? Sure, it has the high production values of UK-based drama, with fine acting and a reasonable script, but the story just doesn't hold water and the over-use of unreliable memories makes the plot too fluid to be involving.I lost count of the number of slamming doors when nobody was there, out of focus flashbacks, deliberately vague memories, seeing things that weren't there, mistaking one person for another, red herrings, over reactions and implausible coincidences. Everything is just too contrived to make sense.Oh, and the computer skills ascribed to one of the characters is simply impossible.Overall I found the plot simplistic, obvious and devoid of tension. If you don't bother to pay attention or think about what you're watching then you'll undoubtedly be surprised by the ending. Personally I knew the outcome less than 5 minutes into the programme.A really disappointing programme.

For some reason IMDb has this listed as a "romance" film. Well, I suppose there is a little of that but to me it seemed more like a mystery or crime-drama movie than anything else. Regardless, this is a very good film with a couple of interesting interwoven subplots throughout. Essentially, "Detective Mackenzie Stone" (John Hannah) suffers from a short-term lapse of memory involving an argument with his wife "Lucia Stone" (Beatriz Batarda) and now she has completely disappeared. He becomes frantic to find out what happened to her and turns to alcohol to escape his feelings of despair. Because of this his mind begins to play tricks on him as he starts having both hallucinations and flashbacks of his final moments with her and neither he (nor the audience) is able to figure out which are true and which aren't. At the same time, another man named "John Dean" (Anthony Calf) is suffering from long-term amnesia and cannot remember anything about his past. However, he has made a new life for himself and he and his new wife "Jenna Dean" (Jemma Redgrave) are very happy together. That is, until Detective Stone comes along. At any rate, rather than disclose any of the surprises in store for any new viewers I will just say that I just happened to check this out at my local library the other day on the spur of the moment and I'm glad I did. It had good acting, especially on the the part of John Hannah and Jenna Redgrave, and plenty of surprises along the way. One caution though, it does run a bit long (around 3 hours) so you might need to check your schedule to ensure there's room for it. But I think you'll be glad you did.

With great acting, superb writing, and well developed characters, this film is really good and will hold the interest of everyone. John Hannah gives us a desperate and tortured man who fights his inner demons. He is not even sure he didn't kill his wife. He is filled with rage, drink too much and is violent but... he loves her. Anthony Calf is brilliant. The change in his personality is wonderful. How could he change from being a sweet and lovely man to being a despicable murder? He did an excellent performance, a marvellous job. This film is a thriller with not explicit violence but with psychological depths and a good story line. I loved it.

I just watched this very well-made show on BBC America, liked it a lot, and 5 minutes later started scratching my head and went: Wait a minute... (SPOILER AHEAD) If John Dean does turn out to be such a baddie, why did he turn himself in as an amnesiac to begin with? Doesn't that open him up to investigation and getting found out? I think that, entertaining as this was (it was especially good to watch through in a 3-hour program), there may have been one too many switcheroos (good-bad-good-bad---) for the 2 main characters. For a change, wouldn't it have been nice if both ended up being decent blokes and lived happily ever after with their respective spouses, had double-dating barbecues together...