By: glenda Awaking from a coma to discover his wife has been killed in a car accident, Ben\'s (Colin Firth) world may as well have come to an end. A few weeks later, Ben\'s out of hospital and, attempting to start a new life, he moves home and is befriended by a beautiful young neighbour Charlotte (Mena Suvari). His life may be turning around but all is not what it seems and, haunted by visions of his dead wife, Ben starts to lose his grip on reality...
Boooooring If you saw the trailer like I did, you expect someting else, the guy who did it should get an award just for that, the movie itself is just plain boring, nothing ever happens, all the time you're trying to figure out just what in the world is really going on, and the ending is about the only good thing about this one,only because you're so tired of all the so called psychologycal drama. What really hurts is all the time they killed to get to the truth behind all this mess, I hit the wall watching this one, expected a whole lot more, and it just didn't deliver.Denial and Self Delusion Ben has a car accident, and wakes up after 7 days in a coma believing his wife was killed in the crash, and his mental and emotional disturbance over her death is interwoven with the murder of a famous pop singer. The plot is a little muddled and one has to see this rather dull film twice to completely follow the thread of it. Staying awake the first time around can be a bit of a challenge, as "Trauma" is full of scenes of Ben as he meanders about in a delusional daze. Jobless and looking like a vagrant, he shuffles through his clippings of the pop star, and fiddles around with his ants and spiders. "Trauma" is not an easy film to watch, not because it is all that disturbing, but because it is boring. A recent film that can be compared to it is "The Machinist," which is far creepier and disquieting to view.
Colin Firth is excellent as the delusional Ben, as is Mena Suvari as Charlotte, the gentle, trusting soul that befriends him. Other good actors in the cast include Tommy Flanagan ("Braveheart") as Ben's buddy Tommy, and Brenda Fricker has a small part as a clairvoyant. Directed by Marc Evans, with some clever cinematography by John Mathiesen, no amount of spooky sounds in the soundtrack or mysterious elements can save this film and make it even mildly interesting. Recommended only for avid Firth fans, otherwise this one is a dud. No DVD extras are included other than Spanish subtitles, and total running time is 94 minutes. Astounding performance! I have never written a review and suspense/thriller is my least favorite genre. Having said that, I watched this movie because of Colin Firth. I think he has been generally underated for years. What pleased me about this film was his absolutely compelling performance. It is a tour de force. Yes, the sound quality was not great, but that did not detract from the power of the internal journey depicted by Mr. Firth. For anyone who ever enjoyed the dashing Mr. D'Arcy...watch this film and see the diligent and concentrated performance of a truly gifted actor.
