Certainly one of the stranger films of the 1980s. Starting out from a familiar premise - a woman who lost her memory - this film does not do much to pick up the pieces and reconstruct what happened, but keeps constantly confusing the viewer with flashbacks that can't be real and jumps in time that hint at the fact that something is seriously wrong.
(very minor spoiler follows) The one problem with this is that the end doesn't come as much of a surprise - I had figured that there were only two possible endings, and one of them turned out to be true.
I'm not sure as to what the Spanish setting was a good idea; I guess it was necessary to create a surrounding in which extreme emotions seemed plausible and the "American abroad" motif also seems to have been necessary.
In the acting department, Ellen Barkin, Julian Sands and Alexei Sayle (as the taxi driver) gave solid performances, whereas I was disappointed with Gabriel Byrne, who was ever so much better three years later in "Miller's Crossing" (and other films following that one). Martin Sheen was no more than a cardboard character.
So plot contrivances aside, I felt this was not an entirely bad movie. I gave it a 7.
(very minor spoiler follows) The one problem with this is that the end doesn't come as much of a surprise - I had figured that there were only two possible endings, and one of them turned out to be true.
I'm not sure as to what the Spanish setting was a good idea; I guess it was necessary to create a surrounding in which extreme emotions seemed plausible and the "American abroad" motif also seems to have been necessary.
In the acting department, Ellen Barkin, Julian Sands and Alexei Sayle (as the taxi driver) gave solid performances, whereas I was disappointed with Gabriel Byrne, who was ever so much better three years later in "Miller's Crossing" (and other films following that one). Martin Sheen was no more than a cardboard character.
So plot contrivances aside, I felt this was not an entirely bad movie. I gave it a 7.