James McAvoy plays the character Simon who works at a famous art auction house. His job is to protect the art in case of attempted theft. There is a robbery. He follows the procedures according to his training, does his best to fight the robbers, and gets knocked out in the process by the criminal Franck (played by Vincent Cassel). The thieves get away with the art piece only to find out all they got was just the frame. The real painting is missing because Simon has replaced it with a fake that is still at the auction house. Simon is a hero for foiling the robbery, as everyone blieves the fake painting at the auction ho0use is the real one, but Simon also suffers amnesia from the blow to his head so he cannot remember where the real painting is located.
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When Simon goes home from the hospital he finds his apartment has been ransacked. Franck kidnaps him and forces him to go to a hypnotherapist Dr. Elizabeth Lamb (played by Rosario Dawson) to find out where he hid the missing painting. Simon pretends to be someone else, tells the doctor he has lost his car keys and needs to remember where he put them. The doctor finds out his true identity. She figures out what Simon is really looking for is the valuable art piece that he hid somewhere but cannot remember. Rather than turn him in to the police she makes an agreement with the thieves to get a share of the deal when she figures out where the valuable painting is hidden.
The doctor, Elizabeth has an affair with the criminal Franck. They are both using each other to get what they want. Elizabeth puts Simon in a hypnotic trance in front of the gang, to get him to remember the day the art was stolen. She takes him through the event step-by-step. Simon recounts the event and what he did to get the painting out of the auction house, only to be hit by a car as he leaves the building, that he strangely remembers Elizabeth was driving. Elizabeth explains this as infatuation and that it Simon's attraction to her is causing false memories.
Simon meets up with Elizabeth and they have sex. Simon knows the gang is going to kill him. He remembers her telling him where the painting is and killing the gang but wakes up in her bed by himself. Simon does not know what is real and what is only a false memory. The gang leader Franck tells Simon that Elizabeth has set him up. The three of them go together to a parking lot where the car is parked that hit Simon after he left the auction house with the stolen painting. In the trunk, are both the woman who was driving the car, that Simon killed, and the painting. Elizabeth confesses that she hypnotized Simon into stealing the painting for her when he came to her months earlier for his gambling addiction. Elizabeth gets the painting. Simon sets the car on fire with Franck locked inside. Elizabeth takes a truck that is nearby and drives it into both Simon killing him, and the burning car, pushing all into the lake. Franck escapes from the burning car, but Elizabeth gets away with the painting.
Best part of story, including ending:
This film is really interesting because of the constant play between that which appears to be real and what is a false memory that has been implanted by the doctor using hypnotherapy.
Best scene in story:
I like the scene when Simon finally remembers how he met Elizabeth, in the first place, which brings the story towards the exciting conclusion.
Opinion about the main character:
There is not that much redeeming about the main character. He is used by Elizabeth, as she uses Franck as well, but he is really a bad guy also that is not innocent and would have probably committed the crime on his own, without Elizabeth's influence on the outcome.
Simon gets embroiled in the world of crime when he gets caught up in stealing some valuable art from his own auction house. His partner, Franck, tries to take the art from him, but Simon, for unclear reasons at first, attacks Franck to try to keep the art for himself. In the scuffle, he gets hit hard in the head, giving him a case of severe amnesia. Simon wakes up the next day with an empty frame, no clue where the art is or what happened after he was hit in the head. Franck and his colleagues kidnap Simon, thinking he's faking the amnesia, and they torture him to try to retrieve the truth. When they realize Simon is telling the truth, they hire Elizabeth, a hypnotherapist, to try to get the information from his head. While engaged in a brief sexual fling, Elizabeth makes a suggestion to Franck: she can seduce Simon, which will help him trust her, and thus she will learn the location of the art with greater ease. She successfully seduces and beds Simon, after which Simon has a dream in which he remembers the location of the painting. Simon, Elizabeth, and Franck all go to a parking garage, where the painting is located in the trunk of a car, along with the dead body of a woman. Simon must try to remember who this woman is, why he double-crossed Franck, and why Elizabeth seems so emotionally invested in his plight.
Best part of story, including ending:
It's a fun thriller, full of twists and unreliable memories. It zigs and zags back and forth in time in a quick and pleasing way.
Best scene in story:
Elizabeth's naked entrance into Simon's bed is a jaw-dropping moment of full-frontal nudity, that triggers Simon's memory and sets the final act into motion.
Opinion about the main character:
He is not terribly likable, but it's always compelling watching his search for the truth buried deep within his memory.
