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31 out of 41 people found the following review useful: What to do if you have a low budget!, 29 July 2005 Author: SILENCEikillyou from The Florida Keys
Make THIS film! Seriously, this film shows how to make a truly scary film without the special effects budget of some other horror films. 1) Hire great acting talent. 2) See #1This movie had no cheap thrills, no special effects pizazz, and no hokey acting talent with great one-liners. I've never given Colin Firth his due. He is hands down, a really great actor and he should do more films like this, where he's not the nice guy. (Maybe he has, already, but thanks to this film, I'm going to check now).This plot didn't need anything extra to weigh it down. And it was very nicely acted out.Mena Suvari is so adorable in this role. She really seems too good to be true. I've always liked her in any movie and this is no exception. But she seems to work well with Colin and I believe they should do another movie together.If you're looking for ghosts or demons. Things that jump out and make you scream. Or hokey one-liners and teenagers engaging in sexual acts while be watched, stalked, and then hacked by a knife-wielding maniac. Look elsewhere... far from this film. If you want to see horrors of the psyche and a genuine mental thriller, 'Trauma' is a very great choice.
25 out of 31 people found the following review useful: Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome: The Movie, 22 June 2005 Author: gradyharp from United States
TRAUMA is one of those films that invokes mixed responses from audiences depending on their expectations: it seems to polarize people into love/hate categories. While not a great movie, TRAUMA has the courage to pose a storyline that is more involved with the interior aspects of a mind altered by physical events. We are asked to observe the world through the eyes of a battered brain which happens to belong to a man with a tattered past. If linear stories are preferred then this is not a film to recommend. For those viewers willing to crawl inside the malfunctioning mind, this film is mesmerizing and full of rewarding moments.Ben (Colin Firth) is seen in the opening flashbacks driving a car at night with his wife Elisa (Naomie Harris). There is a car crash and Ben awakens from a coma in a hospital, convinced that Elisa is dead. He wanders the hospital, drawn to the morgue where the caretaker (Cornelius Booth) enhances the mystery of the place. Ben learns from the TV room that a famous singer Lauren Parris (Alison David), for whom Elisa has been a dancer, has been murdered. His mind disintegrates and everything that follows is a mélange of delusion mixed with bits of reality that exquisitely define how the post traumatic stress syndrome can be driven to psychosis if not recognized and treated.Ben leaves the hospital (or does he?) and continues his art career in a vast building undergoing reconstruction (a building that has been a hospital....), befriended by his mate Roland (Sean Harris) and by his landlady 'Charlotte' (Mena Suvari). More flashbacks (mostly childhood memories) occur as Ben talks things out with a 'psychiatrist' (whose face we never see...) and during episodes with channeler Petra (Brenda Fricker) he is informed that Elisa is not dead. Ben becomes a suspect in the murder of Lauren Parris and his chasing after evidence ultimately leads to a series of disasters, a series of metaphors and delusions, all of which find Ben sitting back in the hospital where he started.Did any of this story really happen, or was it the fabrication of a mind traumatized to the brink of breaking? That is left for the viewer to decide. Though plagued with some static moments and a lot of conversation buried in background music and sounds, Director Marc Evans with writer Richard Smith take us on a suspenseful journey, made all the more bizarre by some extraordinary camera work and tremendously inventive settings. Not a movie for everyone, but for those willing to enter the Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome mind, this case study is rewarding. Grady Harp
31 out of 47 people found the following review useful: brilliant film!!, 27 August 2004 Author: ameliebjd (ameliebjd@yahoo.co.uk) from Manchester, UK
I recently saw Trauma at the National Film Theatre in London and loved it, even more than I thought I would. Although there are some scary scenes it is quite far from being a horror film, I'd say it's closer to a psychological drama. The main character, Ben (Colin Firth) wakes up from a coma to find out that his wife has died in a car crash. While he is trying to grieve and get on with his life, the country is mourning the death of a famous singer, Lauren Parris. Slowly but surely Ben loses his grip on reality and doesn't know what he's imagining and what is real. I thought the performances were brilliant and I particularly enjoyed the visuals, for instance images shown very quickly and not really "flowing" which reflected the confusing in Ben's mind.
16 out of 22 people found the following review useful: Strong story, script and performances. Superb casting, visuals, cinematography, and lighting. Very reflective of Asian psychological horror., 5 July 2005 Author: Richard Brunton (imdb-update@brunton.org.uk) from Edinburgh, Scotland
Within the first ten minutes something struck me about Trauma, it's not your average thriller\horror, well not in Hollywood anyway. There's something different about it, you can see it in the cinematography, the directing and the writing, it's more Asian than it is Hollywood and you'd be forgiven for thinking it came from the latest run of Asian Directors making Hollywood films, but that's not the case.It's actually directed by Marc Evans who also directed My Little Eye, and he does it superbly.The movie started off on a very strong foot with an excellent, and by all accounts well researched, script, and the rest of the team have just kept the quality up throughout. The visuals are very well crafted with some exciting camera techniques and are used as an active part of the storytelling with scenes relying on nothing but the visuals to explain, or confuse, the audience. Common themes and links are made throughout the story, with small clues, references and circular journeys.There's a very urban and modern feel to the movie, and the strong cinematography and lighting provide a natural, real feel to the world around the main character Ben who is played amazingly by the misused Colin Firth. His performance is unnerving, confusing and totally believable. You are drawn in to this character as he begins to try and piece his life together with you beside him at every step. Firth is almost in every scene and commands the screen without overpowering it. His co-star Mena Suvari does a good job standing with him, offering support and her belief in him without question, she also comes across as a natural but naive character. Again, very believable.It's some of the little touches in the movie, the misdirection and the often confusing messages from other characters and the visuals themselves that make this movie so intriguing. All the time you are pulled into Ben's mind and are made to discover things as he does and see them through his eyes, true or not, you see things as he does.Overall I really did like this movie. Everything about it from the sets to the camera techniques reminded me of a good Asian horror movie, something Hollywood has found it really hard to reproduce. It manages to unnerve and confuse throughout, and although some things may not be so surprising, others are. Yet you never truly know the answers, and I love it for that. The movie made me think, and keep thinking.The DVD provides little in the way of extras, although I was most surprised to see an audio description track. This is where someone describes what is happening in the movie for those who are visually impaired. It's an awful, monotonous track and I would have thought more care would have been put in trying to find someone who could give depth and tone to these descriptions, matching them with the mood of the scene. However I didn't really need to watch it.There is an featurette that covers a lot of the movie without giving too much away, and it provides some valuable insight with a lot of discussion from Firth himself. He says something that really sums up what this movie, and Asian cinema, is all about. The art of not showing something.I love a ghost story as long as you don't see too much of the Ghost, and the films really scare me are the ones that don't give the game away. I tend to think that as soon as a Monster comes round the corner I go 'Oh, thank God it's only a Monster, I had something much worse in mind'. As soon as a Ghost is chasing you down the corridor you're into Scooby Doo really.I won't miss out the audio commentary. It features the Director talking about the story and a few of the sets and themes throughout the movie, but he mainly concentrates on the story itself and filling around it, pointing out connections and themes as he goes. It does provide a lot more to the story and is an interesting watch to see the film a second time round. Actually I might like to give it a month or so and watch the movie again with all this knowledge, just to see how it feels a third time, knowing. Evans gives the nod to a lot of references to other movies which so clearly influenced this movie, for instance Honogurai mizu no soko kara (Dark Water) and Don't Look Now.I'd totally recommend the movie, and not just because Richard Smith is Scottish, but because it's a really strong story, script and performances. The casting is superb, visuals, cinematography, techniques and lighting are all done with a slight quirkiness. It's very reflective of a good Asian psychological horror, and stands out well from the Hollywood pile.
30 out of 51 people found the following review useful: Colin Firth makes another bad career choice, 10 September 2004 Author: rmwhittaker101 from York, England
Over the past few years, there has been a resurgence in cheap British horror movies. From the artsy approach of 28 Days Later to the low-budget, hi-gore of Cradle of Fear. Trauma is the latest of this dreary progression of spooky-ooky to inflict itself on screens, and one of the weakest.Colin 'Mr Darcy' Firth leads as Ben, a grief-stricken artist recovering from car crash that put him in a coma and killed his wife. As he comes to terms with his grief, he is burdened down with clumsy student film imagery (ants, mirrors, creepy janitors, inexplicable bleeding, mysterious figures, living in an abandoned hospital). At the same time as he becomes convinced that his wife may be dead, he finds himself the prime suspect in the murder of a generic R'n'B singer whose connection to the main plot isn't explained for over an hour. It all starts to get too much for Ben, who starts hallucinating. Meanwhile, Mena Suvari has a few disconnected scenes as his new love interest, and then disappears for lengthy swathes of time. Not that it matters much - it's the plot, not Ben, that seems psychotic, flailing wildly from one unresolved trick on the audience to another.Running 5 minutes longer in its UK cut than the 88 minute version that showed at Sundance, the extra time does it no favors. In fact, for such a tiny film, it lags, and obviously lacked a strong editorial hand over debut feature writer Richard Smith's red herring-laden script. As the follow-up to director Marc Evan's surprise indie hit My Little Eye, and featuring a leading role by Colin Firth, Trauma was bound to gain some press coverage. That may be fortunate for the investors, because if this had come out of the gate cold, it would have been ignored - and rightfully so.The problems start with the pairing of Firth and Evans. Much as the director's last movie, large slabs are shot through surveillance cameras - however, whereas My Little Eye felt like it showed a degree of ingenuity in its use of non-conventional film stocks, at least the web-cam gimmick used there provided a logicale for their use. Here it feels like Evans falling back on a trick, one that wears the patience of the audience down rapidly. Firth, on the other hand, seems to have taken this role so that he can break away from his type-cast affable bumbler, the more macho Hugh Grant. It's neither the picture to do it in, or the role to do it with. He may as well just be wearing a t-shirt that says "I'm dead mad, me, since he falls back on a collection of tics and idiosyncracies to put over Ben's mental collapse.Ultimately, and much like My Little Eye, it feels riddled with Evans' hubris. He obviously feels like he's making a terribly important and significant movie that owes no debts to anyone. However, much as his last movie was 'inspired' by The Blair Witch Project, it would be worth checking his Blockbuster rental history to see when he last took home Jacob's Ladder. The dissolution of the central character, rotting hospitals used as sets, the half-seen monsters, even the 'vibrating demon' trick all turn up.However, that lack of originality may make it possibly the defining movie of the new wave of British horror. As a scene, it all seems to be so generic, falling back on the use of DV to give it some sense of grittiness. As a movement it lacks the vivacious ingenuity that defined the Amicus and Hammer movies of the 60s and 70s, Italian Gallo, or American grindhouse splatter.
12 out of 16 people found the following review useful: This one will keep you guessing!, 21 June 2005 Author: mimacdon4 from FT. Lauderdale, FL
This movie is an enigma and one that leaves what is real to the eye of the beholder. It leaves room for multiple interpretations.Ben (Colin Firth) is a man who wakes up in the hospital after a car crash to find that the rest of London is reeling from the death of a pop star.He tries to get his life back in order and re-locates to a grim building(being renovated) that used to be an old hospital, complete with old morgue headquartered in the basement.It recalls Polanski's 'The Tenant' or 'Repulsion' in its examination of psychological terror.Colin Firth turns in a believable performance as a man losing his grip on reality. If you are a fan of this type of film, I recommend it. You'll end up watching it more than once and drawing more than one conclusion about the outcome.
8 out of 9 people found the following review useful: Gets you thinking!, 17 March 2006 Author: Scarlet Norman from sheffield, uk
Firstly i think Colin Firth has done a fantastic job in convincing the audience that he is deeply disturbed, i also think people (media) are being especially hard on him as it is not his typical role of the sensitive-romantic-charming-Englishman and this role has become a bit of a shock. Definitely prefer him in P and P and Bridget Jones but this has really shown that he can lead a variety of roles.The film was slightly confusing at some points but i agree that thats a plus point rather than a negative. This is very much a film where the audience makes their own judgement on whats happened and has fulfilled its design as has is definitely a film which you would discuss amongst other viewers and voice each others opinions. In this way puts the 'psychological' into psychological thriller. Worth watching a few times too.Also its not too scary, not a big fan of jumpy horrors, although not keen on the ants being everywhere.Lots of dramatic Irony, could be a huge hit as a novel.
14 out of 21 people found the following review useful: Worth watching, but pay attention!, 3 August 2005 Author: colinfirthfan from United States
Being a huge Colin Firth fan I was somewhat terrified to see this film after all the negative buzz. I prepared myself by giving it my full attention for ninety+ minutes. I was awarded with a surprisingly good film. I like a movie that makes you think about it long after the final credits roll. As long as you are prepared for it. I understand the reaction of other viewers that have scored this movie far too low in my opinion. I thought Firth's performance excellent. Totally convincing me he was a mental basket case. I liked the flashbacks. Not overdone like in some other films(Mullholland Drive, for one, which made it MUCH more confusing IMO). All-in-all a good film if you don't mind using your brain a bit and filling in some of the blanks with your own interpretations.
15 out of 23 people found the following review useful: Traumatic to watch, 23 June 2004 Author: Skint111 from United Kingdom
Another dismal dud from the British film industry. This has all the things that make the average Brit movie so dire: downbeat story and settings, pretentious 'realistic' performances and an incoherent, showy style. Any film that starts with the death of a character that we - naturally - feel absolutely nothing for gets off on the wrong foot. After a short while we're as confused as poor old unshaven Colin Firth, who wears a puzzled frown throughout. Mena Suvari turns up now and then, but really shouldn't have bothered. Indeed, she might as well have phoned her performance in like she did in American Pie 2. Everything stinks about this film: the laughable press headlines (would The Mirror really have 'Caught You! Killer could be on film' as a header in the circumstances the film presents?), the stupid, grim settings (who lives in a barely converted hospital?) and the obscure, confusing story development that tries to be clever but just annoys. I can't imagine anyone enjoying this turkey.
9 out of 12 people found the following review useful: What a piece of crap!, 29 April 2006 Author: MichaelLibinAP from United States
I'm so sick of "filmmakers" being more concerned with art direction than a cohesive story. I wasted 2 hours trying to figure out the significance of plot points only to find...ha ha—there is none! Nothing is connected. None of the carefully identified nuances mean anything. And when it's over, the viewer has no idea what they just saw without listening to the director explain what we were seeing. Now THAT'S a sign of expert film-making! Here's a novel idea...how about A.) trying a bit less to make film look like an MTVvideo, B.) actually writing an ORIGINAL story that makes sense (this is "Stay" plus "Identity*" plus "The Jacket" equals MESS), C.) aping someone like--oh, ALFRED HITCHCOCK who never had to describe what we were watching because his films made narrative sense!*Apologies to "Identity", a really fine movie that shouldn't be mentioned in the same paragraph as this trash...
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